Wilsons Part 1: Dreams and Desires
by Decipher Philosophy
Summary: Slade had been told that his son Grant is alive and is stored within a cloning facility. The story takes a turn into the realms of the mind. Rated M for brother incestuous thoughts. (GrantxJericho)
1. Chapter 1

A/N: **I'm going to lay it straight that it will be weird and nontraditional so please no flames. **

**DO NOT READ if you're against "incestuous relationships, puppy love, canons and chronological facts and logic being screwed over, etc."**

**Chapter 1**

Slade wasn't sure if this was a trap or if it was the real thing. His son was alive. _Grant_ was alive. He was told by a client who wanted him to destroy cloning facilities. The client didn't give the exact location of where his son was or who he/she was. Just multiple locations of where the cloning facilities were, so one after the other, he's been destroying them all around the world.

Multiple times he nearly lost his life but if his son was alive, he would do anything to get him back. No matter what the cost was.

Now he was located at New York City which wasn't a wise choice since Nightwing took charge of this place, but he was a minor problem right now. Nobody had discovered that he was responsible for blowing up all those other facilities. Of course he had help.

"So after a hundred-fifty cloning facilities and a possible war that is bound to happen since a majority of them belongs to criminal and government agencies, I'm sure one hundred fifty one must be our lucky number. If not, I'm sure the next one will!" A teenager stated in sarcastic cheerfulness. She had light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and black wavy hair cascaded down her back. Only a five foot with an hourglass figure, she wore a simple white t-shirt and jeans.

It was night time and the two were hanging on top of a building watching an Italian pizza shop. Slade said nothing. He was trying to channel his frustrated anger to not massacre everyone carelessly and screaming, "WHERE IS MY SON?!"

The pizza shop's lights went out and the owner left the facility. The girl turned them into shadows, traveled into the pizza shop and disabled its security. They turned back to normal in the kitchen where they pressed a button against the wall activating an elevator to appear out of the floor.

"So once we go down there, how are we going to blow it up without taking half of New York City with it?" The girl asked.

"The facility's ceiling was made to be invincible against an explosion only causing a minor earthquake." Slade responded calmly.

"The mystery person is still paying you right?" She asked to fill in a possible void of awkward silence.

"Anything I need. I ask, they provide. That's the deal." He responded short and quick.

"It was expensive getting to certain places. I've been trying to think of a reason they want these places blown up but nothing comes to mind."

"Camouflage, most of the cloning facilities we abolished housed super humans, aliens and other unknown entities. We're possibly saving the world or helping our client get rid of the competition."

"I got that part but," The elevator revealed itself. Camouflage turned themselves invisible for the elevator camera. The two entered pressing the button for the basement. "But why you? I know you're incredible and all, but there's suckers out there who'd do the job without the gall to kill them out of spite for this fiasco. Plus, they could've got someone for _free_. Placing billions of dollars including their lives that will possibly be put in your mercy doesn't make sense."

"It'll all make sense eventually. Whoever is putting me through this will suffer the consequences but for now, it's another day to get my son back."

The elevator door opened, and they were greeted with a room filled with millions of containers housing clones. They searched through the facility ignoring the containers. After going through over a hundred of these things, the curiosity of what's in them were no longer a surprise.

Instead they found the control center filled with people. Slade threw a knockout gas and then shut down the security. Camouflage turned into a shadow checking each room with super fast speed. She turned to normal in front of a door with big yellow symbols, 'G1', displayed on it.

"He's in this one, but he's out cold." She turned her hand into a card swiping it into the lock, and then entering to see that she was right. Grant was in an incubator asleep and naked. "He really is your son." She commented having looked at a certain place.

The two weren't in that kind of relationship. It was because she would shift into her boss's form which had _every_ detail.

She went to a computer on a table having the incubator open. She touched the man's forehead entering his mind. Camouflage closed her eyes and in her mind she was standing in a dark room. Colorful screens appeared before her displaying as different types of memories with different types of emotions. She found the information she was looking for yet, with slight curiosity, she checked the man's emotional stats and background information on certain people.

After almost two minutes (every 12 seconds being 1 second in reality), she stepped away. "He's not a clone. He's real. It turns out that the day you thought he died, he did die but then there was a reverse reaction over the years. He's been healing himself back to health for the last decade and the scientists were able to stabilize the HIVE's serum to match yours. There is no mind control device inside him. In other words, he's alive and will be worn out but fine tomorrow."

When she looked at the man, she didn't know what he was thinking by the mask he wore. But he walked over to his son looking down at him who still looked like the day before he died. He reached his hand out to him but then pulled it back. Instead he held onto the edges of the incubator grasping it tightly.

Camouflage placed a hand on his back and told him, "He still loves you. He'll be enraged when he wakes up but he does love you. Remember that." She turned to Grant getting him out and then holding him up by an arm on her shoulders and her arm wrapped around his torso. "Oof, he's heavy! Be careful!" She turned them into shadows heading to the elevator.

The girl had them turn invisible when they reached the surface. She carried him into a truck they parked in the alley. She placed him on a cot strapping him onto it so he wouldn't fall off of it. She felt the entire city shake mildly which worried the normal civilians, and then Slade got out unscathed as expected, but what she didn't expect was a child asleep in his arms.

"Slade, why do you have that kid?" She asked feeling stupid for a moment.

"I couldn't leave him." He responded simply.

"You couldn't or you wouldn't? Slade, he could already be a clone under someone's control!" She had some sense back.

"Then we'll just have to figure out won't we?" The man placed the boy on an extra cot they bought for emergencies.

The two got on the front seats. "Sometimes I wish your conscience had a brain." Camouflage had her arms crossed clearly angry. "If he turns out to be a cold blooded killer, I'm not stopping him until he done killing your ass."

Slade chuckled. The first laugh the teenage had heard for months, and then drove them away.

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Location: Germany**

"Grant should be waking up at any second. The people at the facility had been training him back to recovery, but he will be experiencing ups and downs. He'll be confused so we'll try our best to let him down gently." Camouflage told Slade while they were standing next to Grant who was sleeping. They turned around to face the unknown boy.

"He's your clone, but he's human. They created him with your blood using him as a lab rat to discover a way to remove the meta-gene. Out of every one of your clones created for the last decade, only he survived the experimentation. Each and every one of them was only a child because they thought it'd be easier if they done it on a younger specimen. He's only two years old biologically but psychologically, he thinks he's eight years old with your memories before your soldier days, but is aware of his real existence."

"Is he any threat to us?" Slade questioned.

"No. He was only created for that reason. If you hadn't rescued him, he would've died in that explosion which was better than the alternative that they had in mind. Child slaves are in high demand these days. He went through a hell of a time in there. Experiment after experiment torturing and killing him, but he fought to live each and every time. Even through all that, he seems to be fine mentally." She looks at the needle marks on the boy's forearms and then asked, "What the hell were you thinking? I could know the answer by invading your head but that's against my invisible contract so why did you save this boy?"

"He called for help. I was bewildered at first of why I heard a child's voice, and then I found him locked in a room."

"You saw him?"

"The door was transparent." He responded and then continued, "He was pleading for me to not let him die. Of course, you know I couldn't deny myself when I was at an age when I was innocent."

A groan was heard behind them. Slade was quickly beside his son to see him slowly open his eyes. "Dad." He said tiredly. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, son. Everything's alright."

"Hospital?... What happened? I haven't... seen you for... ten years?...I had a strange dream. There were these titans and..."

"Just rest, Grant. Everything will be explained tomorrow."

"Explain?" He sat up feeling quite well suddenly. "What do you mean explain?! Oh my god! That dream was real wasn't it?! I died! And the Titans! Are they really dead?!"

"Grant-"

"Don't you dare lie to me!" He snapped smacking a heart monitor on the floor.

"Grant, I avenged you by taking down the HIVE, but I couldn't take down the Titans because I couldn't let them kill Joey."

"Joey! What? He's some pretend hero now! I bet you're pretty proud _dad_! It's always about sweet perfect Joey! Well screw him! Screw the HIVE and the Titans, and screw you!" He got off the bed, but then saw the world spin that he fell to his knees.

Slade reached for him, but Grant shoved his hands away. "Don't touch me! None of you touch me! Or..." His vision turned blurry. He began panting. "Or I'll kill you." He tried to get up with the last of his strength.

"It's useless to force yourself." A child voice said. Slade and Camouflage looked to the child to see that he was off the bed standing next to the girl who jolted back by the surprise. He walked toward the man reaching out to him.

"I said not to-!"

The boy shush him gently, "It's alright. I'm not gonna hurt you." He placed a hand on his cheek and the other hand on his forehead. "You're burning up really bad. You better get on that bed, or you'll melt the floor!" He told him nicely, and then put the man's arm over one shoulder to get him up. Slade helped getting him to bed.

"I..."

"That's enough out of you. When you feel better tomorrow, you can say whatever the hell you want." He placed the blanket over the man helping him close his eyes to fall asleep.

"Wow, talk about letting him down." Camouflage snorted at her own joke. Slade glared at her. She looked away being innocent.

"Sorry, I didn't get to introduce myself first. I'm Slade, Slade Wilson or so I believe." He held his hand up at the real Slade.

He took that hand and said, "We need to talk. Camouflage, leave us."

"You can't be serious." She crossed her arms knowing that look the man had. It meant that a real stupid idea occurred.

"Leave." He ordered.

She looked at the man skeptically but he was the boss so shrugged. "I hope you know what you're doing." And then walked out.

The clone quickly started the conversation. "Before you say anything, I know who I am and I know who you are."

"I know. Camouflage has the ability to check memories including personal thoughts. The people in that facility must've had a habit of talking about me. I'm not surprised that you'd make sense of it." The man sat on a chair that was placed near the corner of Grant's bed. The clone took his seat on his bed.

"So am I in trouble?" The boy questioned frankly.

"No. So far Camouflage has checked your memory data to know that you only possess memories of my childhood before I escaped to the army but with no vital information."

"Sooooo, I'm not in trouble? What are you going to do with me now?"

"I'll leave that choice up to you. I know me and even if I was a clone, I wouldn't want people making choices for me. It's always been the way I am."

The little kid laughed. "You're right, but I'm just a kid from the 40's, you know. Don't know much about this future. But right now, I just wanna stay here."

"Why?" The man questioned and then saw the boy glance at Grant. "Do you have personal business with my son?"

The boy looked away blushing. "I-I just wanna repay him for something."

"And what's that?"

The boy was silent for a bit debating whether to tell his original or not. Yet, he didn't exactly have a reason not to. "He saved my life back there. Jus' wanna repay him for it. Did you ever have someone save you and you were really grateful?"

Slade remembered having a moment happen to him long ago with a very dear friend. "Yes. I wish I could stop you from remembering more unnecessary memories of my childhood, but Camouflage hadn't exactly mastered deleting memories and reforming them yet."

"I've gotten used to remembering these unnecessary memories, but I'm not you. We may sometimes think alike and I'd look like you someday with both eyes or not, but I'm a different me in a way since I'm no father or mercenary either. Does that mean I'd get my own name so people won't confuse us?"

"I don't see why not. What do you prefer to be called?"

He smiled excitedly. "I always liked the name Alexander but call me Xander for short."

Slade smirked at him having thought the same thing which was strange but not surprising. "Xander it is then."

"Yea!" The boy now known as Xander cheered playfully making the man smile. "Can I also ask for one more thing?"

"You may." He nodded.

"It's awkward to call you Slade and I don't want to be keep calling you 'you' so can I," He blushed feeling awkward. "Can I call you dad because I don't actually have one, you know."

That was an awkward request. "Being my son doesn't exactly has its perks."

The little boy shrugged. "Being your clone doesn't have its perks either."

Making a good point, the man responded, "Then yes, you may." The boy's face lit up. Staring at this point of view, Slade wondered if he really smiled like that back then. Remembering the past, he didn't have much to smile about.

"Can I also ask you another thing?" The little boy asked again.

"What is it now?" The male questioned.

"Can you tell me what's it like? To be a soldier. Was fighting in the war how you lost your eye?"

The vivid pieces of Slade's life flashed before his eyes to see so much blood, explosions and gruesomeness yet honor, valor and adventure in them. "I've fought only in one war. I've fought in other battles similar to it yet it was never claimed as a war by our nation."

He saw the boy stare at him with great anticipation that he wanted to laugh. "I ran away to the army when I was sixteen pretending to have been eighteen..." And so he began talking about his life story in the war. About how he met Wintergreen. He didn't get overly emotional about it.

He talked like a reminiscent old man sitting back on his chair with a distant look in his eye sounding very far away as if his soul was returning back to the old days. He'd get louder at the foolish times and then softer at the grim moments. There was some moments he wished to not talk about, and Xander let him be.

Slade didn't show much emotions on his face but his words and actions said enough. And then there was Camp Washington.

"You fell in love with your teacher? EW!" Xander stuck his tongue out.

"She was younger than me." He remarked. "And a much better fighter back then."

"Was she beautiful?" Xander asked.

"Very." Slade responded with a smug smile.

"Did you love her?"

"Yes, I_ loved_ her." He responded with a reminiscent tone.

"What happened next?" The boy hugged his pillow unable to wait for what happened next.

"We fell in love and married within the year. She was pregnant with Grant but I was sent off to Vietnam. I was there for a few years until the military had _other_ ideas for me."

"They enhanced your meta-gene?" He questioned unsure if he wanted an answer but felt eager for it.

"I didn't know anything about a meta-gene back then. All I knew was that the government wanted me to test a truth serum so I wouldn't give important information, but it was an obvious lie afterwards. They used me to test on the possibility of creating super soldiers. I went insane and then unconscious for a few weeks until I was released. My health was still poor until I gained full control of my new abilities. Of course I didn't tell them that I had it under control which led me to desk duty."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"If I did, I'd become a lab rat and other soldiers would become like me."

"So you did it to be unique?" The clone arched an eyebrow.

"It was more about the lab rat idea that set me off. Back then I'd do anything for my country but not when political and military schemes could be seen a mile away. My gut told me not to so I listened to it. Turns out I was right. Having more soldiers like me would've destroyed this world before Superman existed."

"Who?" The 40s boy was bewildered.

"Another hero. Continuing my story," He told the story of how he became Deathstroke. The man he was today.

"And then what happened next?" Xander asked with wide eyes that awed at the developed amazement.

Slade was silent because what did happen next? He lost everything. "We'll stop there for today. It's already passed midnight."

"What?! It's not like I'm going to school tomorrow!"

"But if you want to take care of Grant, you need all the rest you'll need." He walked over to the boy who laid on his back groaning.

"You know, if you're married, why aren't you wearing your wedding ring?" The clone pointed out.

"That's another story for another time."

"But you'll be leaving right! You're a mercenary after all! Gotta pay for the hospital bills and stuff!" He pouted.

Slade chuckled. "Get some rest." He told him lightly. The boy closed his eyes and for a moment he almost looked like Grant as a child. An eight year old boy with light blond hair in need of a hair cut and surprisingly silver eyes. Slade's eyes were grayish blue due to the experiment.

* * *

It was a wonderful bright day at a small town as clear white snow glistened. At the town's hospital, a little boy was sitting beside a slumbering man. He changed the cold wet cloth every ten minutes or so to keep his fever down. He read a novel to keep him company.

The child has been learning German by the hospital's librarian, and has been learning other things by the other patients around the hospital when Grant had to be checked by the hospital staff or Camouflage.

The man's grayish-blue eyes finally opened staring at the boy for a few minutes. The boy wasn't aware for being intrigued by the book. "You're..." The man whispered weakly. Xander's head flew up staring wide-eyed at the man finally awake. "You're that kid back at the place."

"Yes!" He answered nervously. "I'm Xander!"

"Grant. Where's da..." He tried to think.

"Dad is coming to visit soon!" He said quickly feeling his heart thump with nervousness.

"Dad? Are you another bastard child of his?" The man asked rudely, though the child only smiled ignoring the attitude.

"I'm actually a child clone of his with a bunch of his memories. That sorta makes us half-brothers since we're daddy and son now." He tried not to sound too excited.

"Clone, huh. It's better you run away from him kid even if you're his clone because he ain't no good to anyone."

"He's better than others." He bit his bottom lip. "Do you remember anything else?"

"I remember my father being a total dick."

Xander giggled. "I meant at that place silly. You remember me?"

"I remember you being beaten up by a bunch of assholes."

"And you saved me." He turned the wet cloth around. Grant felt a welcome chill on his aching head. "Told me not to let those bastards push me around."

"Don't take it too literal, kid. I just did what I had to do." The man sat up having the wet cloth fall on his lap. "I'm starving! Is there any food in this dump?"

The boy nodded. "I'll go get it!" He jumped off his chair placing the book on it. "Don't go anywhere!" He ordered before leaving. The man merely rolled his eyes. The boy didn't go to the hospital's cafeteria. Instead he exited the hospital, passing by some people he knew who waved hello, to head over to a restaurant nearby.

Grant was flexing his hands testing his vision and movement. He got off his bed slowly to be careful. The last time he jumped out of bed, he almost died by exhaustion. After a few seconds of standing, he took his first steps toward a calendar that showed that he had slept for a week by the details written on it. He then walked over to a closet in the room. There were clothes hung and shoe boxes below.

He took one out that was covered with plastic to see a sticky note stating: For Grant when he wakes up -Slade.

The man crumpled the sticky note throwing it to the corner. He stripped from his dress to see that the training back at the facility paid off. Not a body fat in sight and that said a lot having slept for an entire week. For awhile he flexed his muscles grinning at how his muscles bulge out like those great big athletes.

Done having his fun, he put on some real piece of underwear, and saw that his choice was a suit. He ignored the jacket and tie to settle with just the dress pants and dress shirt.

The door opened and popped out Xander with a bag. "I know that you wouldn't appreciate hospital food so I went to the restaurant to get you some real man food with sweets too!" He stopped to stare in amazement of a Grant fully awake and dressed properly.

The man was a little over six feet tall with a tan complexion since the facility had him also working under heat to see if harm done to him would've exhilarated the healing ability. His light blond hair was spiky due to having been shaved every year or so if it became a problem.

He walked over to the boy taking the bag from him. "Thanks kid." He swatted the boy's novel to the ground to take a seat himself. The boy knew that he shouldn't expect any manners from his hero. He may be his hero, but didn't mean he was that great a person in real life. He remembered the stories Slade told him about Grant.

It took a few days, before the man revealed how he lost his eye and how Wade and Frannie died, including his wife, Adeline and his best friend, Wintergreen. The boy was completely shocked by everything but did not judge him or ask questions. He hugged him. Maybe it wasn't needed but Xander needed it. Something like that, no matter how long ago, would just destroy him.

Xander picked up his book and sat on his bed staring at the man. "So what do you plan to do next when you're better?"

"Don't know kid. The whole world thinks I'm dead and I don't got shit." He continued eating.

"Dad has a place at Kenya. You could work as a hunter. Get to practice your abilities before turning yourself in to the mercenary business."

Grant stared at him. Eyes processing the information. "Not a bad idea kid but relying on dear old daddy isn't what I do."

"It's just a place to stay at. What you do there is your business?" The boy added innocently. He's been planning on this conversation. Slade was well aware of it but what Grant's decision is will be based on him. "You got no money, and since the world thinks you're dead, you could be someone else and no one would look down on you as Slade's _shadow_."

The man stared at the boy feeling a bit suspicious by all this. "And why are you telling me this?"

Xander knew that question was coming so he tried not to be too nervous or eager. "I just thought that since we're both the bastard's sons, I thought you could take me with you." He blushed and then hurriedly added, "Because I'm a kid and obviously daddy has other things to do, so I thought that since you're an adult that we could go to Kenya, earn a little money and then move to America starting your own mercenary business, and I could be your info guy!"

"Info guy?"

"Similar to a technical analyst. I give you information that'll lead you to the best results. I've been honing my skills on computers and succeeded in bypassing several government securities and firewalls, and other things."

"I've been asleep for just a week. How are you able to learn all that in seven days?"

"I met a computer expert here in this hospital in hiding. He taught me the shortcuts and other basics."

"Bypassing several government securities are the basics?" He questioned skeptically.

"It's not?" The boy looked at him completely dumbfounded that the man stared at him the same.

"Are you also a meta-freak like my dad or something?" The man questioned curiously.

The boy shook his head. "I'm just a boy."

"You must be kidding me." Grant held his foot onto his skepticism.

"I'm not! Honest to the Lord Jesus Christ I'm telling the truth!" He did the sign of the cross and then had his right hand over his heart and his left hand up showing his absolute honesty.

"I still don't believe you."

"I'm telling the truth! I checked it myself from dad's friends! I have the files right here to prove it!" He got off his bed picking his mattress up to reveal folders of paper. He took one out randomly and then hand it over to the man. "I have them with me if I don't believe it the next day!"

Grant took a peek not actually reading it and then flipping the pages over and then at the last page there was one sentence written in crayon, "I am human!" With big smiley faces.

He threw the folder onto his bed. "Alright, I get it. Even if this is a trap, I got nothing better to do."

"So that's a yes?" The child stared at him with big hopeful eyes.

Grant was taken back by the intensity of that silver shine. This was the child clone of his father, and Slade's eyes didn't shine like that for a long time. He looked to the side stating roughly, "Yeah, whatever."

"Yes!" The kid pumped his fist to the air.

"But don't get comfortable. Just because your a kid doesn't mean I'm going to baby you or anything."

"He expects nothing less." Slade entered the room. Xander hopped off his bed.

"I'll leave you two to talk!" He walked out of the room.

Slade and Grant stared at each other. "I was eaves dropping." The man said point blank.

"Of course. So are you paying that kid to watch over me or something?" Grant questioned.

"Nope. What Xander said was the truth. He's my clone with my childhood memories. He doesn't want me to take care of him. He wants you because you saved him." Slade explained.

"Uh huh. Whatever. Save him or not, I got nothing else to do so I'll just deal with the kid for now until I got all the money I need, and then I'm flying solo."

"If that's what you want, he won't stop you." Slade responded. "Grant, I'm happy that you're alive. I just thought you should know." He exited the room. Both men flushed by the statement.

* * *

Later, Grant has been spending most days sleeping and experiencing the ups and downs that Camouflage had said. At times the man would act in his normal way and then the next his life was nearly depleted. When it did, none of the doctors touched him since Camouflage had seen that the healing factor will do its job so wasting medical supplies would be pointless.

One night, Grant was woken up by the kid. "What do you want now?" He asked irritatingly. He hasn't exactly regained the skill to sleep and wake up as if he wasn't.

"Can I sleep next to you?" The little boy sounded scared.

"Why?"

"Nightmare."

Grant took a clear look at him to see a scared little boy holding his pillow anxiously for safety. Too sleepy to give a damn, he scoot over, "Hurry up and get in." He ordered. The boy got on the bed and the two got under the blanket.

The bed was meant for one person so to get comfortable the older man wrapped his arm around the small boy pulling him closer.

The next morning, during breakfast in their hospital room, Grant asked, "So what did you have a nightmare about?"

The little boy stopped eating looking down nervously at his food. "Uh, stuff back at that place and...Dad's dad..." Xander was greatly uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Dad's dad? What's to be scared about him?" The man questioned demanding an answer childishly. Xander stared at him for a moment and then looked away. His hand trembled slightly. Grant saw this. "Hey, it's alright. You don't have to answer."

"I know." Tears pooled at his eyes.

"Don't cry. It was none of my business. It's dad's memories any way. Must be pretty fucked up."

"Yeah." Xander responded lamely. "Dad...Dad didn't have such a great life as a kid. I remember things and sometimes I remember some things I shouldn't have." He gripped onto the fabric of his pants.

"Lots of kids don't have great lives. I'm fucked up too."

Xander tried to smile by the comment but couldn't. He looked down at his food and didn't feel hungry any more. Tears flowed down in big droplets onto it. Xander reflexively pulled his forearm to his eyes. His body trembled violently.

Grant felt guilty and uncomfortable by the situation of a kid crying in front of him because of his stupid question. He couldn't let this be. He would be a huge jack ass if he did. "Come here." He ordered roughly acting the simplest way he thought and that was putting the plate of food aside and then holding the kid near.

The man felt the child clench the fabric of his shirt so tightly as if Xander didn't want him to disappear. Grant could relate to that feeling that he held the child closer to reassure him that he wasn't leaving him.

When it came to night, "Grant?" Xander questioned on his bed.

"What?" Grant questioned back on his bed.

"Why are you so mad at dad?" The boy asked.

"Isn't it obvious. He walked out on me when I was a nine. What kind of father walks out on their kid?"

"Did you ask him why he walked out?"

"No. Not like he was going to tell me the truth. I should've known he was Deathstroke. My father gloated about him to me as a child and the only person my dad ever loved was himself."

"Did he ever abuse you?" Xander questioned curiously to have a different view of his original.

"No."

"Did your mom ever abuse you?"

"Ha! As if that bitch ever cared about me! The only one she ever cared about was Joey! Joey this and Joey that! She never cared about how I was doing? She was always busy doing her shit since I was a kid but when Joey comes along, she pushes it all away just for him! You know what?" He got off his bed laughing. "I'm glad she's dead! That bitch and her one and only precious son ruined everything! They're the reason my life is shit! If my mother wasn't such a hag and my brother wasn't such a faggot, my life would've been better!" He ran on with the insults. Face distorted and finger constantly pointing everywhere.

"Because they took you away from dad." Xander interrupted him.

The man stopped silent for a moment. He sat on his bed with his legs spreaded, back hunched over supported by his forearms on top of his legs and his fingers knitted together. "Yeah." He responded honestly. "That bitch wouldn't give me an explanation of why he was gone and dad never even said goodbye. He was gone. Just like that. And I never saw him for _years_. The next thing you know, I get to but I didn't know it was him and before you know it, I'm dead, kid." He looked at the child who was frightened yet intrigued by the information. He breathed out a small laugh. "Get to sleep kid. Wake me up again, I'll kill you." He lied down sideways facing away.

"Good night, Grant." The child lied back down to sleep.

"Night." The man said quickly. Xander knew that Grant wasn't going to sleep soon. Opened eyes and pierced lips, Grant began remembering all the great memories he hasn't remembered for years. All that hate for his father subsided a little to be aimed at his mother and brother. He had to be angry at someone. He didn't want to forgive anyone because he was the victim. A victim to pain he didn't deserve.

A few nights later, Grant woke up to the sound of sobbing. He heard the sound muffled and a sniff. He sat up knowing it was Xander. The boy was lying on his bed lying sideways facing the opposite way.

The man got up carefully to see if he was either up or down. Seeing no bad effects, he walked over to the kid. "Hey kid."

Xander was wide eyed with shock. By the soft light coming from outside, Grant saw that the child's face was wet with tears, eyes were watery and red, and hands still covering his mouth. "Hey kid. What's wrong?"

Xander didn't answer. Instead tears fell all the more. Grant was annoyed by this that he grabbed the kid into his arms and held him. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

The boy finally removed his hands gasping for air as if he hasn't been breathing. "I'm sorry!" He sobbed planting his face onto the man's chest. Hand clenching the fabric of the man's shirt. "You told me-hic-no-not to wake you up a-a-again."

"You should've known that I didn't actually mean it. We're both pretty fucked up right now after everything we went through at that lab. I won't make any promises but if you need someone, wake me up." The child's sobs died down yet the hold on his shirt was tighter. "Okay?" He asked for reassurance.

Xander nodded letting go of that shirt, and wrapped his arms around the man.

* * *

Grant healed rapidly to go on walks or do other things outside the hospital. He had civilized conversations with both Xander and Slade on the arrangements to Kenya. Emotions were subsided for the moment and then Grant would end up in full blown rage when his father did not agree with something he wanted. Xander and Camouflage played as peace makers.

Seeing a pattern as things progressed through time, Xander and Camouflage planned something for the two of them.

"What the fuck?" Grant stated angrily. "I'm not going through some shitty game to make me think everything is fine between me and that son of a bitch!" He pointed accusingly at his father. They had just gotten into an argument recently based on where Grant was taking his mercenary career.

"Grant, we can't continue having arguments delay plans." Camouflage reasoned.

"Shut up bitch! I don't have to listen to you!"

"Grant," Xander said softly. "Just play along with us one time and if it doesn't work out, we won't ask you again." He reasoned. Grant wanted to lash out to not go through with it at all but then the sight of Xander who looked scared stopped him. He took deep breaths in and out.

"Fine!" He growled. "What the fuck do we have to do?!"

"It's simple. You and your daddy will have to stand together facing away from each other." Camouflage explained. The two men complied to her orders. "Now, you can only say everything you ever needed to say to each other."

"Screw that! I'm not going through this-"

"All you have to do is talk!" Camouflage said quickly. "Just talk." She said calmly. "Slade, you go first."

"Alright then," He breathed in and out. "Grant, I honestly didn't know that they would make us do this, but I'm glad they did because I'm sorry if I made you feel abandoned when I left without a word. Your mother finished the divorced papers, and even if I took this to trial, being who I was, it wouldn't have helped, and I wasn't allowed to ever see you again."

"Fuck paper work and all that shit! You could've seen me and you knew it!"

"You're right..." The father sighed through his nose. "No more excuses. I didn't want to see you because I was afraid to make you see me for the monster I am. That night when Joey was taken by the Jackal, I gambled Joey's life in order to protect my pride. Joey almost died that night. I failed as a father not only to Joe but to you, too, because I would've done the same. I would've chosen my pride over you Grant and I didn't want to face you that way. I thought I was protecting you but instead I was pushing you away because I didn't want to face the truth of the man I truly was...A man who loved himself more than his own son. I could never forgive myself since then."

"I would've killed that Jackal before he laid a finger on me."

Slade laughed under his breath. "I never doubted you would. I love you Grant. I'm sorry I couldn't have been a better father."

Grant took deep breaths because he was finally given a reason for why his father left him.

"It's your turn Grant." Camouflage reminded him.

Grant took a deep breath in and was trying to say something but he was deeply conflicted with this. He couldn't. "I can't." He marched out of the room. Xander stayed where he was.

"Aren't you going to go comfort him?" Camouflage asked.

"He needs time to cool down." Xander responded and faced his original who was also emotionally flooded on the inside. "I'm proud of you." Slade looked at him and nodded before exiting the room too for air.

Later that afternoon, Slade found Grant where he thought he'd be. A street fight with a gang to let out steam. After ten seconds, his boy was finished. "Excellent." He commented revealing himself.

Grant took a glance at him before turning away. "I already heard what you got to say."

"But you don't forgive me."

Grant stood still in silence and then faced him, "Ten years I've been waiting for an explanation! The next ten years, I just didn't give a crap because I was dead! You could've told me who you were before I went out there like an idiot!"

"I warned you."

"Warned me as the Terminator! A man who I thought was just a competitor! You faced me as a threat! Not as a father!" Grant pointedly accused him. Slade was silent seeing that Grant proved a graved point. "I don't care what the reasons are anymore! That is dead! I am not the same Grant you knew twenty years ago! I'm not you! I'm sure not as hell that nine year old who kept asking a bitch of a mother where you were anymore and never getting a damn answer! Maybe Joe would've told me, but he was mute and all I got from that was that it was a freak accident! That must've been one hell of a freak accident to have my five year old brother's throat cut making him a mute and mom divorcing you out of nowhere! Everyone lied to me! Do you know how screwed up I felt knowing that even when I was part of this family that not even Wintergreen would tell me what happened?"

Uncontrollable tears fell down his face at the reality he told the man he thought loved him. He let his head fall. "I love you, dad. I always have even when you left me." He lifted his face as the tears fell. "But I can never forgive you for making me a bastard." He walked pass the man to go back to the hospital.

In his room, Xander was sitting on his bed. Grant just sat right next to him. Xander immediately hugged him and then the man hugged him too awkwardly. Grant could not hold onto anyone when everyone he was surrounded with held the truth from him or didn't have the truth at all to save him.

Now he had it all, and was left with so much bottled anger he did not wish to keep. Xander saved him before he fell back to anger by just holding him.

* * *

"It looks like we have the majority of your plans figured out." Slade told his two sons. "I will start making the calls to have them make it ready for your arrival."

"Thanks dad!" Xander thanked him happily.

"Yeah, thanks." Grant thanked him grumpily. He didn't agree to everything but it was settled.

Slade smiled at his two boys. "You're welcome."

"I'm gonna go use the restroom!" Xander jumped off his bed heading out the room.

"If you're not back after five minutes, I'm coming after you." Grant told him.

"Okay!" When he was gone, Slade went to the window locking it.

His son grimaced. "Why do you keep doing that? It's not like I'm gonna run away or something."

"It's not for you. It's for Xander. You noticed how drastic his reactions are to my memories and his own."

Grant grimaced further. Xander has been having nightmares more frequently that their own beds were connected. Last time Grant found Xander huddled on the floor of the restroom bawling his eyes out, or was completely depressed or possibly suicidal that he wouldn't get out of bed.

"I know what happened to you before. Xander told me and told me not to tell you. But I need advice. How did you get out of it? After everything your father put you through, how did you heal?"

Slade was hesitant to answer as he was carefully trying not to remember his past. "It wasn't easy." He responded unsurely yet the words sounded right. He sat on a chair facing his oldest son. "After I was finally free of him, I never felt like I was. To be honest, I'm still struggling with it today. Sixty years has passed, and I still feel vulnerable to what he did to me. It's worse because he was my father and as much as I was the victim, I felt like I was also a potential threat. I was scared to death when your mother was pregnant with you. And sometimes to this day, I wish I didn't come back from Vietnam."

"You thought about abandoning us from the start?" Grant questioned. Not at all surprised.

"If it meant keeping you safe from me, then yes."

"I'm back!" Xander popped in sensing the gloomy atmosphere. "What's wrong?"

Slade stood up. "We were arguing about the plans."

Xander frowned. "That again!"

"It's alright. We settled things before you came back. It's going to be hard."

"What's going to be hard?"

Slade bent down to kiss the child on the forehead. "Growing up. Good night."

"Good night!" Xander shouted as his father locked the door. "I wonder why he keeps doing that. It's not like you're gonna run away or anything." The child got on the connected beds but rolled all the way on Grant's single bed.

The man sighed lying down as well. He stared at the child wondering what he got himself into. Yet, he didn't care for the answer. He just knew that he needed to help him.

"Ready to go to sleep?" Grant questioned.

"Wait!" He scooted a little to the side to give his big brother room. Grant scoot into the space holding Xander close for the reassurance of safety. "Okay!"

"Good night."

The child yawns. "Good night."

Grant turns off the light, and time passed.

_**"NO!"**_

Grant falls off his bed as he tried to understand through the confusion of what's going on. He noticed Xander scurrying off the bed for the door trying to open it in a panic.

Grant grabbed him which wasn't a good idea.

"NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Xander cried as he elbowed the man's face and then dug his nails into his arm. Frantically banging his head back onto his chest. "NO! NO! NO!" He cried raspy as he tried to rip the voice out of his lungs for someone to hear him.

The hospital has been alarmed about this so their patients were given something to make them sleep through this with the aid of money from Slade.

"XANDER! CALM DOWN!" Grant yelled but the child continued to thrash violently screaming "NO!" and then began screaming, "I'M SORRY!" until it began to die down.

For over an hour, Grant held the boy for dear life until he finally settled down. Xander's body was limp yet he breathed. The man continued to hold the small boy like a baby cradled in his arms. That soft light from outside was enough for Grant to see the distant look in the boy's eyes as if he was dead.

"I had enough!" Grant yelled at Camouflage and Slade. They were at the hospital's gazebo. The eight year old was in the room sleeping having exhausted himself last night. "Xander can't continue living like this! It's enough that he deals with his own problems, he doesn't have to deal with yours too!" Grant pointed at his father.

"I know." Slade responded calmly. "But we still don't have a way to cure this without consequences."

"Then what about her!" Grant referred to Camouflage. "You can get into people's minds! Can't you do something about him!"

"Hey, even if I can get into your mind, changing it will be catastrophic. The last time I did it, the person became retarded." Camouflage defended herself.

"Then you expect me to just let him suffer?!"

"We expect you to keep him safe and be there for him until we find an answer." Slade responded reasonably. "I told you that it would be hard."

"Bullshit! Cancel Kenya! None of us are going anywhere until he's cured!"

"Grant, we can't keep you here for too long." Camouflage stated firmly. "We have been here for over two months and your father's enemies are bound to find you and kill you by now. You wanted to be a mercenary, and we made our plans. Stay any longer and the both of you will become defenseless. You might survive but it isn't the same for Xander since he's human!"

Grant was silent walking out of that gazebo and punching a tree off its roots. It scared the citizens around. The male walked back into the hospital and then into the room where his brother was on the bed asleep.

For hours, he sat there next to his brother trying to think of any way to help him yet his mind drew a blank. Grant felt incredibly guilty that he couldn't do anything for Xander. He thought it'd be best for himself to abandon him to pursue his goal as a mercenary surpassing his father. Later he was justifying his thoughts that abandoning Xander was for the better since Grant wasn't the comforting type. And then there was a feeling of agreement and then guilt and then frustration and confusion.

"Grant?" Slade came into the room with Camouflage.

"Hmm?" Grant hummed staring blankly at his little brother.

"You really care for this boy."

"Like you said, he wants me. Not you." Grant responded tiredly feeling the ache between his shoulder blades. The male reached for the child's hand holding it. "I thought complicated things like these only happened in movies at such a short time. It's like a fucking two month long story fit into a shitty two hour movie."

"Xander did his best to make you like him. He always told me when you weren't around that he felt like he screwed up and asked me so many questions on what to do to make you like him. He spent two years tortured in a lab alone. His only reason to live was to meet you."

"Don't make me sound like a fuckin' god." He swallowed remembering when he first saw the boy. He was just doing what he thought was right. Nothing more. But right now, he knew it so well. That if he didn't have Xander, he would be alone, and being alone was heart wrenching.

Camouflage sighed. "I feel like I'm watching a freakin' soap opera. I may have an option of curing him but it might not be for the best."

"What is it?" Grant was quick to ask.

The girl sighed again. "First let me cut it down to you on my powers. I am able to change my form into any kind and connect to minds like the martian man hunter, but reassembling the mind is a lot tougher than you think. The mind is a continuing pattern of thoughts, emotions and a whole lotta things. Basically the brain is made of different cells going in different patterns containing information. I connect to the cells getting my information but rearranging the data isn't like a computer."

"And you're saying?" Grant wasn't catching on.

"Unlike a computer that sticks to one change since it holds simple data besides emotions, the brain is a being of emotions and will react to the change into a bigger output. In short, if I erase information, Xander's brain will panic and it will either stop processing information becoming brain dead or insane in the process. If I add or change the sequence of memories, Xander's emotions will manifest into that and it'll core around that certain memory because the brain is always excited for new information."

"So he might become brain dead, insane or change into a completely different person."

"He might also forget who you are or any importance you are to him. You only did know the guy for two months after all. It'll be wiped out in less than two days!" Camouflage made a good point.

Grant considers the option and then looked at Slade. "What happened to you shouldn't be of any concern to Xander."

"If that's what you believe."

"Then what about blurring the images of the memories and neutralizing the emotions towards it."

"Huh?" Camouflage arched an eyebrow.

"Xander can know the details but its the images and emotions that hits the hardest."

"I could but what if the brain panics."

"Then we'll calm those nerves and add information."

"And if it changes Xander."

"Then we add more. The brain is always changing and adapting. We can use that to our advantage if we play it safe and smart."

"You know you're asking me to do a job that'd take years in his head. I can go very deep that every year in there is only a second out here but I can't promise you perfection."

"Then can you bring me with you?"

"I...I actually can."

"And you?" Grant faced his father. "I understand that you don't want to deal with your memories but I need someone who does know what we're dealing with."

Slade was hesitant yet he nodded.

"Okay then!" Camouflage clapped her hands. "Every one put a hand on Xander's head!" They did as instructed. The teenager placed her hands on both of them. She closed her eyes and entered them into Xander's mind.

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Slade and Grant were within a black room where they could see each other and Camouflage who stood before them.

"Welcome to my safe haven. It's where I travel to to do my business, but this is not where real business goes down. My safe haven only gives me translated genetic codes, emotional stats and so forth of the body's conditions, but to actually change a thought, we need to head down to the storage or I'd like to call: The Memory Chamber."

"Is there anything we will have to worry about?" Slade inquired for safety.

"I...think not." Camouflage gave an unsure awkward smile to support her answer. "I'm still just a beginner with these powers okay. As far as I know, the only possible problem is someone from the outside messing with us. But that's not likely since I made it a year's worth here for every second out there." She pointed down at the ground and then up at the sky as a demonstration. "But then, thanks to that mind movie, I'll need a token from you two. And by token, I mean something you can use to identify that you are in real life or not. Like a spinning top that if it stops spinning, you're back to reality, but if it still continues, you're still in the dream. Mine is this green gummi bear."

"You hate them." The mercenary pointed out.

"Exactly! And by my furious hate for them, I always check my pockets for them to know if I'm in a dream or not."

Grant challenged her idea, "But what if someone puts a green gummi bear in your pocket."

"Ah!" She stretches it and it stretched abnormally long. "Yeaaaah! Green gummi bears can't do that in real life can they. Nope! And if someone's trying to be funny," The bear turned purple, "I wanna see a funny asshole try to trick me. Now you two!" She threw the gummi bear to the side and put her hands on her hips in excitement.

Slade and Grant thought within a thought of what their tokens would be. Slade was the first to think of one and pulled out a revolver.

Camouflage puckered and raised her lips in mild amusement. "An old gun. What's so special about that?"

"I have one stored and it's broken, but this one is fixed and can do a perfect head shot each time."

"Can't you still do that with your super skills?"

"Purposefully? Supposedly; but this won't be used on purpose, and I shouldn't even have this type of gun in my hand."

"Why not?"

"It was what my father used to kill my mother." Slade responded grimly. Camouflage and his son stared at him. The man didn't explain any further. He put the gun back at it's holder. The two curious people felt concern for such a thought as a token, but let it go to focus on priorities.

Grant thought of his own and then opened his fist to reveal a pair of ID tags with a rubber black covering.

"What's special about these?" Camouflage asked as she inspected them.

"Xander bought me a pair of dog tags as a gift before our first journey together. He told me he wrote something in marker on the back and put scotch tape to keep it there. I'm not supposed to look at what it says until we got to Kenya." Grant removed the black rubber cover to reveal a clean grey steel slate. He put it back on.

"Clever. Now follow me, and we'll get this business going!" An old elevator appeared behind her and opened up. The three entered and went upward until it stopped and then opened to reveal a forties movie theater. The young woman stepped out. "Here we are."

"Why is it a movie theater?" Grant inquired staring at the place that was practically a museum with the posters of very old movies.

"The memory chamber can take form of what the person takes it as. Right now Xander's head thinks of his memory chamber as an old theater. If you've noticed, the movies on the wall are horror movies."

Grant looked closer at the theater posters to realize that they were by the Frankenstein and werewolves looking grim, but not so terrifying to the young man. "So he takes his memories to be like a movie?"

Camouflage pointed out that they did watch some horror and action movies with comedy on the side. "He seemed more fond of horror movies. He was never scared. More intrigue was more like it."

"He did come from being experimented on himself." Slade pointed out, too. "I don't remember ever having much fun at the theater. I was only a child when Max would make me go to watch them with him. It was pleasant, but perhaps that I never realized how much more important those memories were in Xander's case."

"Whatever." Grant continued to walk forward through the hallway where he saw the signs for which theater was showing what movie. He came across titles that were strange to him such as: 'See, hear, smell, feel and taste of death', 'Pain: Physical vs Emotional vs Psychological', 'The death of a mother', 'The sweetest moment', 'Memories that are not mine', and 'Xander is born'.

Camouflage wrinkled the skin between her browns as she inspected these signs. She peeked inside from the doors. She decided to go with the 'Memories that are not mine' since she could sense that that would be the less horrific one out of them. She saw a boy running through the field with a soccer ball. He was trying to kick it pass a man with grayish short hair and glasses on. Appeared to look like the boy's father playing with him but the girl knew better to see that it was Max, and not Nate. Slade's real father. "Never thought a memory chamber could be this neat." She looked away. "I had trips before, but they were usually foggy. Like the signs would be more direct with titles but the movie itself isn't as good."

"You mean like Hollywood?" Grant compared.

"Yeah like that. I guess when they extracted the meta-human gene away from Xander, his mind didn't completely lose much of its genius that the two of you gained from it." The girl continued to walk.

"And what exactly are we searching for Camouflage?" Slade inquired.

"For the door that says 'Do Not Enter'. It's where the memories are being put into maintenance. It's where I'll have to do my magic while you two...make sure I don't screw up. Be my eyes frontwards, backwards and sideways. All that."

The three eventually found the door and entered it. Within, it wasn't as expected of a movie theater. It was like they jumped through a portal that sent them to the clockworks of heaven.

They entered a hallway that had the floors, walls, and pillows that supported the arches of windows be milk-white and have the guests reflection appear below them as if they were walking on air. The view past the arches was the clear blue sky during the afternoon when it shone brightest yet didn't have the heat over take it. In fact, there was no wind either. It was still air that blanketed them in a cool refreshing way.

They continued to walk through the hall, but then Camouflage stopped halfway having the other two men stop behind her. "Just to make sure that we are not being fooled by the perception of the mind." She hunched down posing like a frog with her hands on the floor. She had the door at the end of the hallway be bought to them.

What looked like a door was a clear arch entrance with hanging door beads as its decoration. The beads had the colors of ocean blue, sun yellow and milk white. When they past through them, it alarmed a piano's tune to be played.

Grant felt a faint reminisces cast over him when the continued to play to the end.

"Grant?" His father had touched his shoulder to grab his attention when the man had shown an expression of being lost in deep thought. "Are you okay?"

"...Yeah." He gave a quick nod, and tried to forget the feeling of something poking and pulling his brain to concentrate on his true objective.

Yet, the teenager among them had no sense of personal space, "Don't be shy Grant. That piano music was what Joey always played for you when you ever really hung out with him. Why it's in Xander's mind isn't a good sign. It means that Xander's head is connecting back to our minds which shouldn't be possible. Unless he's consciously aware that we're in his head, but he was asleep. Even I could tell he was when I entered the room."

"I thought you had to touch our foreheads." Grant pointed out his observation for the last two months.

"That's only for reassurance that I'm in someone's head. Doing it telepathically can be screwy. It's like having mixed phone signals if there's another telepathic...You don't think another telepathic is screwing with us?" Camouflage became worried. She wasn't ready to face another telepathic who could be skilled as the Martian Manhunter or his niece. They were born with that while she was given to it as a pre-teen going through the hormones! Remembering how that played out for her in an orphanage didn't go well. She made an awkward facial expression as she stressed out and remembered the disgustingly horrify memory of getting into pre-teen boys.

"Calm down Camouflage." Slade told her encouragingly, "If there was someone, you would know."

The girl's expressions relaxed by his words. She nodded her head. "You're right." She had a red screen appear at the sweep of her hand in the air. "Okay, there's no one." She sighed in relief but then tensed up. "Still doesn't explained why this piano music is playing. Have you ever heard of this Slade?"

"No."

"Of course he doesn't." Grant said bitterly. "It was after you left. Joey thought that he could make me feel better by playing this after I was put home by force..." The man began remembering solidly of that moment. The piano tune began playing again. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" The music stopped suddenly. The two witnesses didn't speak a word of his out lash. Grant gritted his teeth, shrinking the sight of his lips, and then sighing through his nose to calm down. "Let's get this over with."

Camouflage looked at Slade who looked back at her. The two silently agreed that it was a matter to not investigate on until later.

They walked farther into the room to see golden gears turning like it would in a clock tower or a factory. The three of them soon found what they were looking for. The maintenance of the memories' core. It took the form of a pedestal that had a book that had a cover made of wood and blank pages being written by a fountain pen with quick precision like a surgeon.

"Alright. I just gotta put my hands on that book and do some rewriting and redrawing." She took a deep breath before sauntering towards the book and placed her fingertips carefully on the edges of the books cover to not disturb the writing for fear of causing the brain to malfunction.

She held her breath in a false sense of excitement as she closed her eyes feeling her chest fill up and then provide her the energy to create a second pen. The last page with finish writing had rose up to stand straight in the middle before pages written before turned in rapid speed and then stop when the pen was to work. She also created white-out to clear or 'blur'/'smug' the pen drawings.

Slade and Grant watched her until their enhanced senses even travelling into the mind could sense danger. They turned towards the direction their gut feeling directed them having their head raise up towards one of the gears.

There, there was a male child standing on top of a rolling gears not moving and defying gravity as he was standing sideways from their point of view. The child had a mop of black hair and the brightest glowing blue eyes staring wide-eyed at him. He was dressed in a jacket that was half black and half orange with a recognizable angry white eye shape on the orange part. His half his face was covered by a half black and orange mask like a ninja. His had on long blue pants with a grey utility belt around his waist. A sheath sword was on his back, and his he had one black glove and one orange glove.

The men looked at the teenage girl to see that she was completely focusing on fixing the book. The two men looked at each other and nodded to a silent agreement that they were to handle this themselves.

The boy continued to just stare at them until he decided to reach into a pocket into his utility belt to take out a yoyo. He put the string around his finger while continuing to stare at them with those brilliantly lit blue eyes and then played with it like a yoyo should be played with.

Grant and Slade kept their guard against him while also trying to be aware of other dangers lurking around. The child's yoyo went up and down, up and down, up and down, until the string suddenly turned into a chain and the yoyo itself turned into a hammer. The child moved the hammer across him and had the weight pull him down.

The child immediately fights its weight by turning his weight to pull it around, out and then towards the two men.

Grant and Slade thought quick of their weapon. Slade had a sword in hand while Grant took out a gun to try to shoot at it but he saw that his bullets weren't shooting straight. They went straight for the hammer but it shouldn't have. It was like the hammer was magnetizing his bullets. So he switched from a gun to a sword.

The hammer's head collided with both swords. The men's stance having moved a foot back. The child landed his feet against the bottom of the hammer and pushed himself back with the hammer. At a far distance, he spun again. The chain of his hammer happen to be increasing in length.

Slade and Grant went for the chain. They jumped and then land down on it to have it dropped down. They wished to have done it sooner when the hammer slammed down right in front of Camouflage who wasn't bothered at all by it.

"Any ideas?" Grant questioned his father.

"Just to think as many as you can until we discover how to win this mind game." The man pulled out a firing machine gun on the boy who ran like a rabbit.

* * *

Camouflage was doing her best at 'healing' Xander's mind. But something seemed to not be right. Right now she was within a different safe haven. She had created two of herselves. One to be of complete concentration on doing the objective, and the other to be constantly checking Xander's emotional stats and such.

What got her feeling awry was that nothing was going wrong. Maybe Grant's idea was genius after all, but it was too suspicious the none of the data was changing.

So instead of checking to make sure Xander was not being harmed by her changes, she searched deeper into Xander's genetic code thoroughly. Whether there was anything truly special about the child that had him unaffected.

The screen before her began to become incomprehensible when the data was scattered and blurred. "What the hell?! Xander!" She cried out. "I'm almost done! Xander! Don't!" The screen went back to normal. The girl calmed down her rushing imaginary heart. "Xander, I know you can hear me. I know you're conscious of us being here, and understand that we are here to help you. Whatever happened in that lab is not going to haunt you anymore vividly. It'll just feel like a forgotten bad memory that you'll never bother thinking about again later."

"But I don't want to forget it. I want to continue thinking about it."

The teenage girl turned around to find Xander standing under a spot light a good distance from her. His face completely blunt from all expressions. "Why Xander?" She inquired hesitantly.

"Because there's something that happened to me at that lab. Something they did after they took out the meta-gene. They didn't torture me afterwards. They put me into the room where dad found me, but before that...before that, there was something they did. I can't remember it, but I know I should remember it. I have to!"

"Okay, Xander. I'll stop." And Camouflage did. Outside her safe haven, she stopped her white-out and pen. She made them disappear and the pages fall back down. The true pen at its place continue to write. The two men defending her were confused. "I hope I didn't cause damage to you." She told him warily.

"Don't worry. You didn't." He shook his head as confirmation. "In fact, I feel a lot better with not having to remember the useless stuff except for when Grant saved me and gave me hope, and the missing piece of my memory that feels so important. Will you help me find it?"

"Okay." Camouflage agreed. It didn't feel right, but it was Xander's mind and she was still new to doing this. "Maybe if I read the book of your memories, I can help you point that out."

"No. It's not in the book. That book is filled with the memories that made more sense. The events that happens during my consciousness and sometimes subconsciousness. What we're looking for is in my unconsciousness."

"Y-you mean like down there. The deep dark place where all the truths are kinda hidden and stuff." The teenager became terrified when the child told her that was the place. The unconscious wasn't exactly a joy ride to go to considering that the unconscious also hold the darkest desires. The darkest things that the mind suppresses inside. Exactly what causes people to have phobias and do actions they don't understand. "Xander, as curious as I am about you, too. We can't go there. The unconscious is like hell. Once we go in, we may never get out, and we might suffer for eternity. And I made sure every second out there is a year in here so-"

"It's okay Camouflage. I understand." Xander's blond hair turned black and his grey eyes shone blue. "But you're useless to me right now." Electricity blasted from his hand. Camouflage immediately mentally shielded herself from up front but was not quick for the shot to both her sides by other versions of this Xander.

She weakly asked, "Why?" She fell on her knees but kept her upper body half way up with her hands on the ground. "Xander, I saw in your genetic code that something is evolving in you. Something beyond what is meta-human and is more natural. Mutant okay. I think you're becoming a mutant. What powers or form, it'll give you, I don't know. But don't let it be this one." She raised her head up to the one who tried to shoot her first.

This new form of Xander appeared cold. His face stayed blunt, but then those icy blue eyes gave the young woman the shivers. The males faced the palm of their hands at her. "That isn't a complete answer." They zapped the woman until her physical body was thrown back against the wall.

She fell to the floor and could do nothing as those dreaded seconds went by. _Years_ within the mind going by.

* * *

Both Grant and Slade were confused and shocked to see Camouflage disappear. Dumbstruck that they didn't avoid the blunt hit of the hammer to them.

"You two are in the way!" The boy told them in the voice very much like Xander's. "Go get a life!" He multiplied and the hammers came crushing them until they fell to complete darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

A blond child was sitting on his bed in the middle of the afternoon wearing a jacket, long pants and new shoes on. His grey eyes staring at the door with plain expectations. And then as expected, a blond woman walked in. Her own blue eyes smiling at him. It wasn't grey like his father's own, and her hair wasn't brown like his.

"Joe." The woman told him lovingly and turned her head towards the bags. "Are you done packing for camping?"

"Yup." The child nodded. "I packed up all my clothes and my favorite toys inside like you asked mama."

She gave him a gracious beautiful smile. "Thank you Joe."

The child looked down at the bed to not have his mother see him blush by the gratitude. "You're welcome." He told her shyly.

"Is that how you welcome someone Joe Will?" She inquired with her disciplinary tone that got anyone to follow her demands.

Joe pouted but knew he should be respectful. He looked at his mother straight in the eye and responded, "No mama. Sorry mama."

"I accept your apology young man. Now help your mama get these bags in the car."

"Yes ma'am." The child hopped off his bed and went for the heaviest bag to carry to the car. The woman tried not to smile so widely at how cute her young boy was. Already trying to be a man.

They got into the car and then went back to the room to get the last two ones. Joe asked her mother as he reached for the heaviest one, "Mama, is papa coming with us?"

"No. He's busy with work."

"Oh. That's good." The child said bluntly. "He isn't fun anyway."

"No...He's no fun at all." The woman bought her boy to her arms and kissed his head. "Remember Joe. Don't do what your father does. He's a coward who thinks he can oppress others and blame them for his mistakes. All that I expect of you is to better than him. Become a better man."

"I know mama. That's why I'm going to the military when I grow up like those soldiers at the parade. I'm gonna make you proud like those other mamas."

A sweet smile crossed the woman's face when he said that. That gave her hope. But that hope was stomped when she heard a car parked outside. "He shouldn't be here." She whispered in panic. She knelled down to instruct her son to hide under the bed and to not come out no matter what.

Joe did as he was told before he watched his mother's feet go out the door. All was silent for him. The seconds ticked by and the small dust bunnies under the bed tickled and bothered the boy's skin.

_BANG!_ The boy flinched. His whole body had goosebumps and his heart was racing. Pounding against his chest as the messages sent to his brain was to stay safe, but then he realized his mother was out there and the sound sounded so close that it must be in the house.

He got out from under the bed and ran into the living room to see his confused father with a pistol in his hand. He looked to where his father was facing to see his mother bleeding on the floor. Yet, clearly still alive.

"Mama!" Joe ran over to her kneeling beside her body.

She was scarcely breathing. Her face contorted by the pain coursing through her body since the bullet when into her abdomen. "Joe." She whispered his name.

The child cried knowing how these things ended. "Mama." He sobbed.

"Joe." She said strongly. "Do not cry. Monsters feed off of your emotions." She coughed out blood.

"Mama!" Joe cried out but didn't move since he didn't know what to do.

His mother told him her last words, "Be a better man than your father. I love you." A single teardrop fell down from the corner of her left eye before she let go of her body.

"Mama? Mama? MAMA!" The child sat up abruptly on his bed. Finding himself in the afternoon in his jacket, long pants and new shoes.

His mother came running into the room. "Joe?! Did something happen?"

The child analyzed his mother to see no blood, no contortion of the expression, no whispering of the scarce breath giving her the little energy to do so. Instead the woman gave him a look of worry bewilderment. "Did something happen?"

Joe whimpered at the sight of his mother alive before him. He ran to hold her dearly. This only worried the woman more. "Joe? Joe, what happened?"

"I had a nightmare." He sobbed.

"Oh. It's okay Joe. Everything's okay now. Remember we're going out camping now. Did you pack your stuff?"

The kid was silent. He stepped back from his mother to see the packed bags he had ready. He looked at her and nodded. "Yes. Let's put them in the car mama! Now!" He grabbed two of them and ran towards the car to put them in.

"No running in the hallway Joe!" His mother scolded him as she was bringing one bag out to the car. Her boy was already back in to get the other one before she put the bag in. She quickly walked in and stopped her son from going out with the last bag.

She knelled down holding his arms. "Wait Joe. What's going on? You look scared. Is it the nightmare?"

"Yeah, but I'll tell you later. We gotta go before papa gets here." The kid pushed on but his mother kept him still.

"What are you talking about? Nate won't be here because of work, honey."

"No. He's coming early. We gotta go!"

"Why?"

Then there was the sound of the car parking outside. The woman's eyes widened to realize her son was right. "Joe, you stay here. Hide under the bed and don't come out until I come back. You know my tattoo right." The woman had a tattoo on her ankle. It said 'Slade'; a name of an ex-boyfriend. She was drunk when she got it.

The child nodded. "But mama-"

"Not a another word out of you young man. Let mama handle this. Now go hide."

Joe didn't want to but then dropped the bag silently and hid beneath the bed before his mother left. When she did, he hesitated at first, but then knew what was going to happen. He got out from beneath the bed and ran after her down the hall.

He did it silently and stopped to witness his drunk father holding a pistol at his mother.

"I got fired today." Nate told her. He chuckled, "And here I thought I could come home to my loving family, but a BITCH OF A WHORE LIKE YOU HAS BAGS IN A CAR! WHO'S FUCKIN' CAR IS THAT JOSEPHINE!"

"It's mine!" She said in a loud voice that sounded strong unlike his irritating yelling. "Put the gun down Nate. We both know you're too scared to shoot me. I picked up with your selfish attitude because we have a son, but not anymore. Not after what you did to Joe."

"It was just one slap to the face!"

"An act that a father should not have done to his child! Especially when he did nothing wrong you retarded drunkard! If I wasn't there to stop you, who knows what else you could have done to him."

There was silence for a moment before the man clocked the gun. He smiled. "Am I a coward now Josephine? Beautiful sweet and most importantly strong Josephine."

"You're sick Nate. The fights, the affairs with other men's wives, the drugs. I know what business you're planning on getting into now, and I'm not raising my son around you."

"...That's too bad..." He steadied his gun. Finger ready to squeeze the trigger. "You won't."

"NO! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MONSTER!" Joe tackled him down. The man pulled the trigger. The bullet shot into the wall. Josephine quickly grabbed her son away from the man, kicked the gun out of the man's hand before stomping on his face, and then spit on the unconscious body.

She held her son close in her arms, "Joe, that was the stupidest thing you have ever done." She leaned back to look down on him. The child was worried if his mother was angry but she smiled down at him. Tears brimming from her eyelids. "But you were so brave. You'll be the best soldier in the world Joe." She held him in her arms again before getting the last bag and leaving the house forever.

The policemen came afterwards and arrested Nate Will.

This changed everything that Joe had dreamed. Dreamed that after his mother had died, he was dragged by his father from San Francisco to Gotham City where the drug channels were the best. He changed their names. His being Nathaniel Wilson and Joe Will being Slade Joseph Wilson. Joe told his father that he wanted the name Slade, but didn't tell the true reason why.

The man didn't bother pressuring him for the answer, and played with the words of saying, "I slayed Joseph Will, son." He chuckled darkly as he made that his son's name.

Then Nate married a cop named Frannie to plant bugs and get info from the station. He was the perfect husband for a year or two before he began showing his true colors. Beating Frannie while also keeping a hold on her by using the abusing cycle. He taught his new baby boy Wade terrible things as he also abused Slade and one time locked him a basement which nearly starved the child to death.

That took it too far, and Frannie wasn't going to let this go on. She broke away from her chains of Nate's abusive cycle, and figured out his true identity and had him divorced and jailed for the death of his former wife. The rest wasn't necessary to explain.

Everything changed for Joe Will. Instead he grew up with his mother at New York City and the male grew up outstandingly, but still went to the military at the age of sixteen to achieve his dream for the army.

He went up through the ranks with ease and created a moral code. He met Wintergreen, Adeline Kane and enemies on the way.

His life was perfect to him. His mother was there for his wedding. She was there for the birth of Grant in his place while he was at Vietnam. She was there when the army wanted Joe to go through an experiment.

"You want to do what?" Josephine Will was not thrilled with the news. The woman was well in her early sixties while her son was in his mid thirties, but she was still quite a beauty.

"The military wants me to do an experiment for a serum against truth serums."

"Bullshit." The woman's dirty word sounded clean and clear from her mouth. "You're not a lab rat Joe."

"But this is for the sake of our country."

"Which you will not put over the sake of your family. Grant is only four years old and not ready to have a defected father."

"Ma."

"Don't ma me. You're obviously here in my home because you wanted my opinion and I'm telling you no. That is my final answer. Think about it Joe. If the test did go wrong, you may never be a soldier again and that will be what will kill you."

The man heard her point, and she was right as usual. More than usual which Wintergreen would point out. "But what if it goes right?"

"And you're immune against truth serum? Ha! My son wouldn't need some immunity to go against a truth serum. You have strong will. That's your immunity. Now go." She smirked as she couldn't help saying, "My daily doctor is coming in."

Slade was a little disgusted by the TMI. He just respectfully left after a, "Yes ma'am."

The experiment didn't happen, and soon Joseph Will Jr. was born. Six years later, Adeline gave birth to a baby girl with brown hair and grey eyes.

Josephine grinned down at her three grandchildren in the hospital room. The ten year old Grant and the six-year old Joey was staring at their newborn sister. "Blond hair and grey eyes. Blond hair and green eyes. Blonde hair and grey eyes. You'd think that because of the punnett square that you'd have a brunette by now."

Adeline snorted, "You'd think, but that enough children for me now." Slade held her hand that still had a strong grip even after all that. His wife smiled at him happily. "We finally have a daughter."

"Yes we do. She's beautiful." He kissed her sweetly unable to fathom of anything better.

* * *

A ten-year-old Grant didn't understand why he was having these dreams. A dream where he came back home to discover that his parents divorced, his little brother that he swore to protect was a mute, and no one would tell him why. The nightmares grows when he grew up and died ten years later. Dies all alone in hatred and rage.

"What's wrong Grant?" His father asked. The two were out fishing by the lake at the back of their mansion that Adeline inherited after her father died.

"Nothin'." He responded blandly while he frowned which didn't convince the man.

"You don't need to be shy to tell your family what's wrong. Unless they're willing to use it against you. You trust me right Grant?"

"I do dad." He ground out. "It's just nothing." Yet, he sighed as he put his cheek upon his hand. "Why are we even doing this. It's so BOoooring!"

"It's to teach you to relax and be patient. You cannot expect your prey to be exactly where you want it to be and have it at the moment. A great hunter waits for its prey to come to him completely unaware of its presence and then," He pulled the string having a fish hold on to it. "Reel it in or take it down."

"Then why can't we do some real hunting?!"

"When you're older Grant. You're still a novice in hand-to-hand combat training from your mother."

"In my dream, she didn't care about me." The child revealed. He thought it was the best way to tell his father what was going on with him and to be right in the discussion.

"In your dreams? Is that what has been upsetting you?"

"Yeah." the child affirmed putting his rod down and crossing his arms. He explained to him of what happened in his dream. "I know it's just a stupid dream dad, but why did I have to dream about that?"

Joe/Slade felt damned to hear such a thing that his son has dreamed. He did his best to comfort him by stretching out one arm and pulling Grant to his side. "Life is a mystery. All we can do son is endure it and fight back at its most crucial moments."

The inexperienced child felt more curious to those words of wisdom, but he wanted to ask the more crucial questions. "You and mom will never divorce right."

His father lightly laughed at that question. "Of course not son. I love your mother very much that I'd never divorce her."

"That's not the same for mom. She divorced you because you hurt Joe somehow. They took you away from me. I don't care that you divorce mom. Just don't leave me." Grant couldn't help the water filling his eyes. His father leaving him...It was the most painful thing to experience for him. It made him feel so alone in the world.

His father soothed him. "I won't Grant. I won't."

* * *

Grant grew up to being a grand army man who fought and led in Afghanistan and Iraq. He became a heavy decorated soldier, a husband and a father. Of all those titles, the one he was proud of the most was being a father.

"Grant?" His wife called for him as she entered the room. Her husband was standing in front of a mirror dressed in his uniform. "Are you finished yet? Today is your dad's big day." She told him excitedly. "And you standing next to him as he gives his presidency speech will make him look not just good but great." She smooth out his collar.

The man grinned. "I know." He walked out of the room to be greeted by a female midget running towards him.

"Daddy!" She jumped into his arms. Grant groaned as he picked her up.

"How is my princess Xandria?" Grant asked his daughter who had long black hair and grey eyes. His baby girl was a mix of Caucasian and Cambodian who had the name Sadie Alexandria Will. Xandria for short. She was the most beautiful girl to have ever been created.

"I'm good. How about daddy?" She asked back with her cute voice.

"Daddy is just fine."

"Good because after this, uncle Joey promised to do our portrait together and Aunt Rose is going to teach me self-defense. She told me that I'm old enough to learn that now in case the security guards can't do their job right."

Grant had a good relationship with his siblings. Annoying they can be, especially his little sister, but they were like any other family. They were a good family. Almost perfect in a way.

His father ran for president and won as predicted. His mother was to be his first lady. His grandmother, Josephine, was still alive and on her feet as a great support. Joey grew up to be a famous artist and a music composer. Rose grew up and became a martial arts instructor for a woman's exclusive dojo. Her business along with Joey also helps out orphans and abused people.

"I love you daddy." The daughter wasn't shy to say. Her grey eyes becoming a twinkling silver. It's romantic beauty just like the moon at its fullest and the stars only being her jewelry that's incomparable to her beauty.

"I love you too, princess." Grant told her lovingly before they were to bear witness the presidential inauguration of his father.

* * *

Camouflage woke up feeling an ache on her back, and then instantly remembered why she did. She looked towards the three males to see that they were still locked in Xander's mind. She jumped to her feet and leaped for them as she made herself grow tall. She touched the heads of Slade and Grant entering it.

She checked what has happened to realize that over sixty years had gone by, and that the two men had been raised through a complete different life. A complete perfect life. This was bad. She had damage control to do and had to do it through the worse way.

* * *

Slade was sitting on the president's chair to go through papers with a multiple of people in the room discussing about it.

They suddenly disappeared and all that was left was a teenage girl. "Slade..." She knew the plan but didn't know how to put it into words that'd make her sound completely crazy. She just made several people disappear and the man probably thought that she just murdered them. Oh great.

The man stood up with a gun in his hand. He may be the president but then he always had to have a gun in his hand in case his security wasn't enough. "Who are you?"

"A friend." Yeah, that sounded good. "A real person in this world that is actually fake. Slade, you're dreaming."

"What are you talking about? And why do you keep calling me Slade?"

"Because that's your real name stupid! Oh wait, your mom's alive so you never changed you name to Slade Wilson. Duh! What the hell was I thinking?!" She lamented her own stupidity for a second before concentrating on the task that she hoped to have not screwed up.

"Enough tricks. Why are you here?"

"I'm here to take you back Slade! You're dreaming right now!"

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because this isn't right. This life may be great but then none of this is real. It might be hard to believe since it's been years mentally, but think about this logically. When was the last time you got sick? When was the last time you used the restroom? Please tell me you haven't because ew."

The man who had both eyes who were a brilliant grey while his hair was white and maintained fancily. He was still ripped for a man in his sixties. He stopped aiming at the girl and sat on the front edge of his desk. "I don't believe you, but then my men hasn't come in. What have you done?"

"I kinda stopped them from coming in since they are imaginary. Turns out I have the power to manipulate dreams which is cool but also scary because I don't know if I'm harming your head as I'm doing this. But when you think about it logically by movies and novels on dreams, anyone can manipulate dreams. So I guess it's not actually a power of mine..."

Slade stared at the girl which made her uncomfortable. He then told her to sit and explain everything to him. She did hesitantly and explained what was happening, and then told him what was supposed to happen, and what he is.

"So you're saying that my mother was supposed to die that day and that I became Deathstroke. The most feared mercenary and assassin in the world who did go through the experiment that gave me super meta-human abilities. That all of this is a dream created by my clone that I adopted as my son. And that not only me and you traveled to this dream, but also Grant."

"Yeah! I know it's hard to believe but-"

"I believe you."

"What?" The girl was greatly surprised by how easy that was.

"Everything has been strange since my mother took me from my father. I have never been sick since or needed to use the restroom. Especially the dreams that you perfectly describe. Even Grant and only Grant had the same dreams. It's either you and whoever you're working for has been determined since my birth to manipulate me for the power I contain, or that you're telling the truth."

Camouflage didn't quite catch that. "So you believe me?"

"Almost. Prove to me that this is a dream."

"How am I supposed to do that? I'm not an expert at this Slade or Joe. Is it okay to call you Slade?"

"Slade's fine. And I've read that you can tell by the count of your fingers or the fact that you can't read a book in your dream, but I have ten fingers and I have read books."

"That's because you can use ninety-percent brain power that it shouldn't be impossible to tap into your left brain to handle it. But then you must've only read what you've read before. You were always thorough in learning your enemy and positions of power that you becoming president is natural for you to do with each problem that comes your way since you've faced it before."

Camouflage got up. "But there is something that can prove and I hope it does. Xander's mind is raw and it was a wildcard to have entered here in the first place but we can be in your head, too, Slade. You'll need your token to do so. I kinda missed out on the information to tell you that not only does your token prove whether you're in real life or not, but when you need to get out of someone else's head, it becomes your compass."

"And where do I get this token?"

"You have to think of it, and I won't do anything. I promise." She took the man's hand in hers. "You can trust me. You always have Slade. The world out there is horrid, but it's real. I know you and you know me Slade. Well, I'm not supposed to know you this well, but then I had to in order to reason with you and wow, we are alike in some cases. Similar tragedies except you killed my dad who was also a dick. And, wow, I should stop talking now."

"Anika..."

"Camouflage. Wait, what?" The girl froze when she realized the man called her by her real name.

"Anika." And then he drew out a pistol. The girl jumped back and tripped on her own footing. Good thing it was a dream because it would've hurt her butt. "This pistol...It was the one my father had pointed at my mother but it was busted."

"Yeah." The girl got up. "But when you shoot, it'll always be a head shot no matter where you aim. At least that's what you told me."

"I see." He shot a painting and it aimed straight for the forehead. "You're right..." The man glared at the gun as he put all the pieces together. "Grant has a daughter."

"Yeah, I know. It won't be easy to convince him like you."

"That's because he was born within this dream of ours. Everything is perfect. Why would Xander do this to us?"

"Xander is or at least could be an unstable science experiment. He told me before causing this that he had to remember what happened in between him losing the meta-gene and when he was put into that room you saved him from. There was something important that happened in between those two moments that he has to find inside the unconscious. I guess he did this to distract you and probably be happy."

"And I am." Slade told her but sounded so sad when he did. He looked out the window contemplating his life. "Let my mother in here."

"...Okay."

She allowed the action to happen, and Josephine entered completely worried. Camouflage made herself be a part of the portrait that Slade shot.

"Joe! What happened?! Where's your security?!"

Slade faced her and placed her hands on her shoulders and then up to her cheeks. His expression and voice was stone. "Mom."

"Joe?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Please just listen. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you that day." He gasped hard and couldn't prevent the tear from sliding down his cheek. "I'm so sorry I couldn't become the man I am now."

"Joe? What are you talking about?"

"I know you're not real, but I always wanted to tell you since that day that I love you...And that I'm proud of you, and wish that you could be proud of me, too. I'm sorry for failing you mama."

Josephine's bewildered expression changed to an expression of sadness. She placed her hands on his own that was still on her cheeks. "Joe, you were just a child, and you couldn't have done much but you were so smart. So smart to notice the little things and know who I am. You knew what flowers I like, what were my favorites, and knew how much I _love_ you without having me say a word. This may be a dream, but you know that I'll always continue to love you. Even when you are without hope and do something stupid, your heart and mind cannot deny that I'll always love you. And I am proud of you as Joe or Slade. You tried to do your best unlike Nate. You became a better man." The woman cupped his face and kissed his forehead. "Now make this right."

She stepped back with the most beautiful smile as she got younger and younger until she became the age that she died. "I'll always be with you." She said before walking out the door.

* * *

Grant was sitting on a bench watching over his daughter playing at the playground. Her mother decided to have a day to herself at the spa which he didn't mind. That meant pretty woman later on.

But he wasn't going to watch her alone. His little brother Joey decided to visit him before he was deported back. The curly blond man sat down next to him. "It's good to see you Grant."

"Nice to see you, too." Grant felt a little hostility towards him due to the dreams, but controlled it because Joe was a good brother. Annoyingly good but his brother.

"How was Iraq?"

"Hot and dirty." The man didn't feel like getting into details. Joey smirked laughingly by his explanation. He may be good, but can still worked a dirty mind. Grant realized what he just said and lightly punched his brother on the arm. "No! I mean! What the fuck?! Ew! Joe!"

"Grant! We're in front of children!" He scolded through his laughter.

"Who they should be worried about you."

"Me?! It's your fault for using those words."

"It's your fault for thinking that way."

"Well, it's your fault for thinking that way, too. Otherwise you wouldn't have punched me."

"I'll punch you in the face if you don't shut up." He threatened, but didn't mean it. He sorta did. He could but he wouldn't.

"She's beautiful." Joey commented as he watched Grant's daughter happily go through the monkey bars like a pro. "Xandria is truly gifted. Very much like her father. Do you think she'll become an army general when she grows up?"

"Don't know. If she wants to, then she can. I won't stop her."

"Like how father didn't stop you from doing whatever you liked. Most teenagers would have done reckless and stupid things, but you were always straight edged. That makes me curious brother. I'm not accusing you of anything, but you must have secrets under that cold smolder of yours." Joey gave him a curious smile.

Grant chuckled. Joey was always a queer to him, but he worked with it. "And what about you, mama's boy?"

The blond smirked. "It would only be fair that we share secrets to keep the bond steady in between us."

"Stop with the melodramatic speech and tell me the fucked up things you did, and I'll tell you mine."

"I wouldn't say fucked up-"

"Then shut up."

"Grant. Don't be so mean."

"I'm not being mean. I'm being straight forward."

"You're being a jerk."

"Ouch. Name calling. That must be a new low for you Joe."

"Shut up." The blond's face blushed.

Grant gasped theatrically. "You said a bad word. I'm afraid Joey's turning into a bad boy. Everyone in town should watch out for you. Bad boy Joey is coming into town!"

His little brother was horrified by how evil he was for trying to demean him in public. "Please don't humiliate me in public Grant." He whispered to him as he cupped the side of his face to be not seen.

Grant chuckled evilly. "Lighten up Joey. Only the moms are around."

"That's still doesn't comfort me brother."

"So does your weird hairstyle but hey, I don't complain."

"You think my hairstyle is terrible? People say I look cute with it."

"You look like a monkey. That's why Xandria likes you." The man smirked at him. He'll admit to himself that he was being a jerk, but he couldn't help bullying his little brother.

"Uncle Joey!" Xandria ran towards them. Her uncle stood up and was hugged tightly by his niece. "Did you bring me a present?"

"A present? I already gave you one."

"Yeaaaah. But right now?"

Grant got up. "Xandria, we talked about this." The little girl pouted with her puppy eyes. Joey couldn't resist those eyes, but her father did. "No. Right now we're going to lunch."

"Yea! Is Uncle Joey coming with us?"

"If he wants to."

The said man gave them a warm loving smile. "I'd love to."

Grant led the way after holding his daughter's hand. Uncle Joey held the other one. It was all perfect.

* * *

Slade and Camouflage immediately left after Slade said goodbye to this perfect life to find Grant. Since it was just a dream, they were able to get to him easily through the door and find Grant inside his study doing work after having lunch with his brother and daughter.

The son was surprised by his father/president's visit that he was immediately on his legs in attention. The situation was extremely unclear since his father was not escorted by his security. Instead he was with a plain teenage girl beside him. "Mr. President, what is this?"

"Grant, there's something we have to tell." Slade told him with a very steady tone of seriousness that held no mirth whatsoever that this was a joke. The man looked to Camouflage to explain.

The shape shifter showed a face comedic grimace because she thought Slade was going to handle it, but no. It was her. Figures. She stepped forward towards the man who was literally born into this dream unlike Slade so this one was going to be tougher.

"Hey Grant. Remember me? I'm Camouflage. But it's okay if you don't. It doesn't matter-actually it does matter because I made this possible. But Xander also made this life possible which is truly amazing but never mind that. Sorry. I'm nervous." The girl really needed to work on dream social skills.

Grant didn't look happy at all about this. He thought this was a practical joke being played on this. He looked towards his father that he was sure his father. "Dad, what's the meaning of this?"

"Listen to her Grant. I know it's hard to believe, but you need to remember your true objective before all this." The man approached him until he stood right in front of the man's study desk. Camouflage stood beside him.

"Yeah." Camouflage got more serious of the matter. "I'm sorry Grant but all of this is not real. You're in a dream."

"In a dream?" Grant knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?! There's no way that this is a dream."

"It is Grant." The girl insisted strongly. "Deep down you know that it is Grant. Remember your dreams. Remember the nightmares. They're real. They're your real life. It looks unrealistic, but it happened. And now, we're in this dream because of you. Because you wanted to save Xander...You got to remember Grant because I can't take you away when you're attached to this reality."

The decorated soldier stared at her as he felt some awkward and dangerous emotions in his chest. He vividly thought of the dreams. The nightmares that has haunted him for years since he was young. But then he also thought about his life now and compared them.

He knew one of them was right and one of them was wrong, yet one thing kept him from being right. He stepped to the side looking away from them as he battled with himself of who he was.

Camouflage saw the conflict. "Grant, you know the truth, but you won't admit it...It's because of Xandria isn't it." The father stopped walking away and stood from where he was. He was completely silent. Camouflage didn't want to do this but she had to. "Grant, she's not real." The man didn't respond. She tried harder. "Grant! She's not real!"

"Shut up!" He roared out. He was sweating as if it was a sauna in the room. Face completely red by frustration and strain of other emotions. "Don't you fucking talk about my daughter that way!"

Camouflage was shut for a moment, but she moved on. "Grant, you came here to save Xander!" The man turned away from her covering his ears. "Don't mute me out! You came here to save Xander because he was hurting! Hurt by what the lab did to him! Remember the night he completely freaked out because of those memories! He panicked and went wild no matter how many times you told him to calm down! You had to hold him down with so much strength without having him break something! YOU THINK THAT'S BAD! THINK ABOUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN ONCE HE WAKES UP AND HAVE ONE OF HIS EPISODES BUT THIS TIME KILLS HIMSELF!"

"SHUT UUUUUP!" Grant shook by how loud he roared.

"Daddy?" Xandria appeared at the door worried and scared.

Grant stared at her. His beautiful baby girl who he watched grow up when he came home from serving the army. His baby girl who loved the color purple, favorite food was spaghetti, ice cream and pizza, loved going camping and catching fireflies, and hated her science classes because of frogs. Always called him daddy and telling him how much she loved him. Always sending him letters, pictures and videos when he was abroad.

He couldn't help the pools of tears that fell down his reddened face as many waterfalls streaming down his heated skin.

His daughter started crying, too, because her daddy was crying. "Daddy, what's wrong?..." When she didn't get an answer and her big strong daddy wouldn't stop crying, she began sobbing, "Daddy?"

Grant sniffed loudly and breathed shakily as he felt like he was about to choke, but forced the words out, "You're not real."

"What? What do you mean I'm not real?" She ran towards him pulling on his pants. "I'm right here daddy! I'm right here!" She cried out to him. Her face reddening and nose dripping wet snot. A face he couldn't bear to look at.

He shook his head reluctantly. "No you're not."

"No!" She began pounding her child fists on his lap as hard as she could, but not too hard because she didn't want to hurt her daddy too badly. Grant's heart broke to pieces and each one fell every time she reapeated, "I am! I am! I am!"

"No...No...NO YOU'RE NOT!" His fake life disappeared. Now he fell on his knees in a room of darkness. where he could see only Camouflage and his father but didn't wish to look at them yet. They were back to the safe haven.

Camouflage had cried as well when her guilt welled up in her. "This is all my fault." She whispered.

Slade placed a hand on her shoulder to look at him. "Not it's not." He told her comfortingly. "We knew that there would be consequences doing this. We were just not prepared for this."

"But none of this would've happened if I had been better."

"Shh." He shushed her as he put his hand on her cheek and brushed the tears away. "Nobody is at fault here. We all came here with the best intent. It was all our equal responsibility to handle that intent. We've all been taken down, but we will rise and fix this burden."

Slade walked over to Grant and crouched down to pat his back as the man cried over the loss of the daughter he never had.

Camouflage walked over to them wiping the rest of her tears away. She suggested that they should probably stop and continue this another time. When she was to be more skilled, she'd visit them and they'll try again. But Grant rejected.

The male had responded to her suggestion weakly. He cleared his throat, stood up and imagined that his face was better and it was. As if he had not cried at all. He took out his dog tags and removed the black rubber cover to look behind the naked steel plate to see nothing. Proof that it was all a dream.

Grant put it away and had an expression of complete determination. "We came here on a mission to save my brother. I won't wait for years for him to get well. For him to struggle with these memories. We are going to finish it." He looked at Camouflage and gave her a well meaning, "Thank you."

The girl gave a wry smile and a one shoulder shrug. "Don't thank me yet since I basically ripped you away from happiness. Even if it was false, it was...nice. Sorry. I agree with you, and we're almost done anyway."

She explained to them that Xander was looking within his unconscious to find the missing pieces of his memory in the lab. There was something the child felt was important to remember in between the moment the meta-gene was finally extracted from his and then before he was sent to the room that Slade saved him from.

"What could be so important?" Grant inquired.

"I don't know." Camouflage replied completely unsure. "I checked his body thoroughly to see nothing out of place that would not make him human, or Slade's child self."

Slade thought of a theory. "It must not be what they did to him, but who was there. I supposed the reason Xander wants to remember is because he wants revenge."

"Makes sense." Grant agreed. "He didn't think twice about your career as a mercenary and me becoming one, too."

Camouflage felt shivers. "I guess Xander really is dark. But can't judge him. Being abused and treated like an animal, he's bound to have psychotic ideals."

"Or sociopathic." Slade added.

Grant grimaced by their conclusions but it made sense. Camouflage inquired, "So what are we really fixing here? Are we really healing him from his past or changing his ideas. Maybe Xander isn't the sweet little boy we thought he was."

"The real question," Grant said, "Is whether he's using us. He may be human and the child self of my father, but environment does have a lot to do with how we think."

"Are you backing out of this Grant?" The girl asked.

"...No. Whether he's using us or not, I just want him to be okay. When he proves to be a manipulative brat, I'll take care of it."

"Then the objective has been changed." Slade pointed out and explained, "We came here to cure Xander from his pain, but this time we'll have to help him."

Camouflage was lost on the 'help him' part. "Help him? What do you mean?"

The man clarified that they were to help Xander find this missing information and also know of it to know the boy's true objective.

"But Slade..." The girl was hesitant about the plan. "If we're going to do that, we'll have to travel to the unconscious, and that's a dangerous place. It's where the darkest desires and the most repressed memories are. It's where the secrets behind actions, phobias and the other person goes, too, when it's not supposed to be surfaced. If we go in there, we'll become a victim to those things."

"It's worth a try." Grant told her bravely. Slade agreed.

The girl was still unsure. "Okay. But I should just go alone. Not that you two would be in the way, but you're lives were completely changed within a minute, and those years must still be wearing down on you-"

"You're not going alone Camouflage." The young man told her and explained, "I may be useless, but I can't stand just waiting and doing nothing while you're risking your life for what I pushed you to do."

"So basically, if I go through this, I'm pulling you two down with me, and you'll willingly go."

Slade responded with a, "Pretty much."

There was a pause, yet it was a plan. Stupid but still a plan. "Okay! We're going to hell."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Slade, Grant and Camouflage were walking down the stairs of the basement of the memory chamber. The place was just plain darkness that Camouflage had a torch in her hands to light the way.

Before entering the dark abyss, Camouflage had to get inside the males' heads first and used the time to figure out how to protect their memories. She became more confident in her abilities. She had to be in order to finish this. She couldn't hold herself back anymore after failing miserably and putting Grant through what he did. It was also a plus that the two were meta-humans so no worries. It took a long time but for the men, it was just a few seconds.

She also accomplished figuring out how to put a mental chain that could extend for them to make sure they don't separate again. She also gave them her signature tattoo on their bare feet for extra reassurance to know if they were real, and to make sure she can bring them back to the safe haven. If she couldn't, the two males had their tokens to get them back there.

Now with a protected mind, a way to stay together and a way to go to safety together or not, they were ready. At least they think they were. The unconscious was a new place for all three of them, so they braced themselves for the worst.

The young woman finally came to an end to find wooden door. She hesitated giving the men a glance before opening it and revealing the lab that they found Grant and Xander at. But it was different. There were dead Xanders every where.

Each one appeared to have been killed in some way. Some looked to have no been successfully maintained as it grew. Others were either cut, burned, hanged, beaten to death, ripped apart, poisoned or left to an unknown fate when they saw an arm all by itself while the other bodies around didn't own it.

All ranging from just a baby to a child. Camouflage had herself float above the bodies while she analyzed the place by having small screens of different shapes around her to find anything particular. Slade and Grant walked by them. All was silent until another dead Xander dropped to the floor. The child had his entire back melted off by some sort of acid. They observed the ceiling to see that it was plain ordinary with its lights.

They continued on searching for some sort of clue. Entering different doors filled with either dead Xanders or ones being tortured. Grant didn't want to witness this for much longer. Nonetheless, he went on.

"Why are you here?" A tired voice inquired. The three turned around to see a very slovenly Xander. His face had bags overlapping over bags as black spread around it. Blond shiny hair appeared to be covered in natural oils and unkempt. He wore no clothes which revealed his bruises, cuts, bite marks and charred skin. "Did you come here to see me be humiliated? Li-like all the others. Laughing...Laughing..."

"Xander." Grant advanced towards him but Camouflage rose her arm to his chest.

"Don't be fooled Grant. We're in the unconscious. This is Xander before we saved him."

They stared at the dull child who stared back. He slowly raised his mouth to say, "Grant?" His head was shot.

"Xander!" Grant leaped for him but Slade held him back.

"Calm down Grant! It's just an illusion! Don't let him fool you!"

The young man heard him. His body was still tense wanting to be freed to hold the child. He used strength to relax his body providing the trust to be let go of. He continued to stare at the immobile body on the floor bleeding a gallon of blood.

"Is...Is all of this him? All the deaths he went through?"

Camouflage knew the grim answer, "No...Some of them were the other clones he watched die in front of him. We're practically in the show a thousand ways to die. It's one of the main reasons the others gave out. They didn't have any hope."

Grant continued to stare at the dead illusion of Xander before turning away and continuing on to search. Camouflage searched harder to find the memory. Yet, Slade didn't move.

Camouflage noticed his tenseness. "Slade?" She looked over to the dead illusion to see it getting up. The walls flips into mirrors. A whispering echo was telling them, "Get out."

"What's happening?" Grant questioned staying close to the two. Camouflage formed a protective bubble around them.

"I have no idea." She replied. "But if I were to guess, Xander wants us gone."

"But shouldn't he be aware that we're trying to help?!" The young man inquired. "The unconscious is supposed to hold the true intent or something!"

"GET OUT!"

Slade, Grant and Camouflage found themselves imprisoned down to a bed by steel bars. The room was clear white and small. A child with black hair and the freakiest glowing blue eyes stared at them from the ceiling that it laid against. "I told you to get out." He told them in Xander's voice.

"Xander," Grant said, "We're here to help you. Whatever you're looking for, Camouflage can find it."

The child sank down towards him slowly. "Grant, why didn't you accept the life I gave you? It was perfect. You could've lived it again and again and maybe change a few things while you were at it since you knew it was a dream. Didn't I make Xandria perfect?" He straddled his waist cocking his head to the right with wonder.

"You matter more Xander. I came here to help you forget the pain because I care about you."

Xander straightened his head and then had his fingers caress Grant's lips. The child's fingers felt like ice. "Isn't that a bit too soon. We've only been together for two months. Do you even know what's my favorite color?"

"Purple, and how much time that went by doesn't matter. You helped me through the bullshit of coming back to life. I'm only returning the favor."

Xander stared at him before getting off him and then stepped back to face all of them. "Favors..." His hair turned back to being blond and his eye color turned grey. The three of them were released. Grant hugged him immediately since it felt like years since he did. He wasn't ashamed to do it because he truly cared about Xander. And in a way, Xandria was Xander by the little things.

The name, her eyes, her loving child-like personality, and favorites of hers. Purple became a favorite of Xander's. Clones can have their own taste that were different from their original. Slade's favorite color was orange.

"I'm sorry, but please leave Grant. The only way to find it is by passing through your own darkest desires and repressed memories separately in order to get into mine. I'm still struggling with getting through mine to figure it out."

"We'll help you. It might be the most stupidest and dangerous thing to do, but I'm not quitting on you." The young man reassured the child that he wasn't going anywhere. Xander couldn't handle Grant's words that were the same as confessions of love for their sibling-ship.

"But I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"I've gone through worse." That wasn't technically the truth, but this sort of pain was something Grant was willing to go through. It was something good that he chose to do. "Now let's do this. Camouflage?"

The teenage girl took a deep breath nodding to them. "Xander's right after checking the place. We can't find that missing memory unless we go through the intense level of the unconscious which consists of three levels. We're at the tip of the unconscious that stores the desires and memories that can fall into the subconscious and then come to light of the conscious. The second level is the darkest desires. Naturally since people are more likely to succumb closest to those desires, and then comes the repressed memories. The truth behind ourselves. Our habits. Our fears. The whole enchilada."

Slade pointed out, "So in order to help Xander find this memory, we have to fight our darkest desires. Fight a world that is darker than the perfect life we were set with at first."

"I've protected our minds. I can do the same for Xander just in case this place tries to forget who you are. But I don't know if this place will or will not separate us. Though I find it weird to figure out each others' secret desires because that would be extremely awkward. Back to what is important, Xander, we need more details of why this memory is so important? Are you trying to remember someone because you're perfectly healthy by human-standards. Even more healthy than me."

The child gave a hesitant shrug as he looked down shyly. "I think so. Ever since dad saved me, I've been remembering about the lab again and again. I was always conscious and awake for everything they were going to do to me. Except for after I became human. Everything was blurry. There was colors but I know for a fact that I heard a voice and there was someone there. Someone important because they said something important. I don't remember it exactly, but how I feel, my gut tells me that it was something important that I had to remember it. Something that might have to do with Grant."

"I see." Slade said. "So what we're looking for is a memory that mentions Grant."

Camouflage had screens around her and looked worried. "Well, that still doesn't help make this easier." She told Xander, "I've checked your emotional stats and if we try hypnotism, it would only bring back other traumatic lab events, and you will have severe panic attacks if we dig deeper. I guess we really do need to be direct about this."

She took a deep breath to relax. She wiggled her body a bit to break her tense nerves. "Okay gentlemen, I found a fast way to get there. Ready to meet your darkest desires?" Slade and Xander responded with wry smirks while Grant nodded nervously. "Yeah...Let's go."

Without Xander interrupting her with some psychotic idea to make his family happy (Sounds like someone obviously familiar), she created a stairway going down in the middle of them. They held each others' hands (Camouflage with Slade's, Slade's with Xander's and Xander's with Grant's) before Camouflage led them in. Her legs were shaking as she took each step. As they got farther down the stairs, the young female began to relax her legs when she found the strength to do so.

Xander grasped their hands tight when he could hear that they were close. He could hear a clanking and buzzing sound. The sound of metal and electricity. Grant began to hear something else. The sound of Joey's piano music. Slade could hear the sound of rain droplets pattering. Camouflage could hear it, too, and held Slade's hand tighter creating a shield around them from possible mind alterations. "Guys, don't-" She looked back and there was no one there.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

"No Anika. It's not." A female's voice told her. Camouflage looked behind her to see someone she didn't think she would ever see again.

"Mom?" It was her. The short woman with features similar to her and wore a comfortable pink sweater, long white jeans, nicely cut bobbed hair and simple jewelry for her simple taste. The teenager was confused. If she had failed to protect them from the mind alterations, this should be her darkest desire.

"You're confused aren't you." The woman told her. "But deep down it makes sense, you stupid little twat. People since the beginning of using their stupid little noggins and created the controversial stupidity of religions have figured out seven terrible little habits."

"The seven deadly sins."

"Exactly. Good. You know something."

"Shut up mom, and get to the point." The teenager immediately got a slap to the face that sent her to the ground.

"Speak tough, but can't stand on your feet. Even for an imaginary bitch slap to the face. Useless." The woman called her. "You were always weak and shy Anika. And jealous of me."

"No I wasn't!"

"But this is proof that you are. You were envious of me because you couldn't be as confident and beautiful as me. Jealous that you couldn't be as good or strong as your friends. Couldn't be smart or passionate like your father. You were so envious that deep down you wanted to see us all-" The woman was grabbed by metal claws. The entire scene turning into the cliff of an island. Waves thundering against the rocks. In front of her, her mother was grabbed into a mansion with several people inside. Even though her mother was taken away, her voice was clear as if she was right next to her, "Burn down to the ground."

The building was immediately lit on fire and spread so fast. People in there were screaming. People that Camouflage knew that she did envy and hated. She saw them run out of the building screaming as they were continued to be burned.

And she felt _satisfaction_. "Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath. The seven deadly sins. The darkest desires that'll fuel thy heart with raw satisfaction."

* * *

Xander found himself standing at one of the hallways of the lab that he's been contained in. A katana was in his hand. Several soldiers with scientists behind them had their weapons pointed at him. The blond child glowered at them as he gripped the katana's handle firmly. Blood will shed and it will not only be his.

* * *

Grant was lying down on a single bed which was meant for one person, but someone else was snugged against him. The body felt lean and the person's chest was flat. The hair was short and curly. Soft and smelled like lilac as it tickled his chin. By the feel of the leg tangled with his, he felt no clothing from the waist down. Or the waist up for that matter.

The man didn't panic even if he knew that he was lying with a naked male. What did frighten him was the room around him. It was his old room back at his old house that he lived with his family. There was the closet, the one window that bought sunshine in the room above his bed's headboard, an army poster up on the ceiling along with other posters that dealt with health the army around his room, and a body length mirror with sticky notes on it to remember plans.

He continued to look around without daring a look down at who was next to him, but didn't miss the blond curls.

Beginning to feel the warm of the other's skin against his own and then something else flaccid against his thigh, he quickly took the blanket off of him and got of the bed to find himself naked which was even worse.

"Grant?" The naked male on the bed supported his upper body up by his forearms. His green eyes gazing on his naked form. "Is something wrong?"

Everything was wrong. It was incredibly wrong in all sorts of ways. He thought to himself that all of this was a trick. That this wasn't his darkest desire, and that there was going to be a more reasonable explanation for this. For now, he was trying to think of what to do without making it awkward.

"Grant?" There was the squeaking of the bed. Just a small squeak but Grant's heart was on full blast rocket beating mode. It was just an unconscious dream, but then it became hard to breathe. When he felt hands graze his sides he jumped back turning around to look at his brother, Joey.

His brother was confused by his sudden revulsion to his touch. "What's wrong Grant?"

"Joey..." He gulped down, took a breath and then asked, "why are you...why are we naked? Why...?"

The male's confused face slyly turned into a soft smirk. "Isn't it obvious Grant? You love me as more than a brother." Joey told him simply with that kind voice.

"You...You're talking." Grant reached out to his neck to see that there was no scar. His thumb graze against his adam's apple to feel a smooth patch of skin. No bump or a different color contrasting from his light skin.

Joey held his wrist gently with both his hands. "Yes I can. I supposed father forgot to tell you that, but he did tell you that he killed my physical form before my soul resided within him for over five years." He moved Grant's hand to his cheek where he leaned against the touch. A frown formed by those precious pink lips. "And by the insanity that one of the titans had left within me, I had become corrupted by my own power to the point that I killed Uncle Will. An act that I can never forgive myself for."

Grant felt his heart pinched when he heard that tone of complete sorrow for one's actions. "It's not your fault. You were crazy. It's better than me anyway." He told him casually. He wasn't at all bothered with just caressing his little brother's cheek while the rest of his body was at a distance.

Joey smiled by his comment. "It hurts me that you're taking my murder of Uncle Will so casually."

"Because the old man lied to me like the rest of you did." he took his hand away from him.

His little brother was caught off guard by the action as if he's been slapped instead. "But I didn't lie to you Gant. I was only five at the time, and mother told me to not tell anyone about that night. Are you going to blame me for not telling you about a night I barely understood myself?...Grant?"

That was true. Grant wanted to stubbornly continue to blame him, but it was too much of a bother now to be angry anymore. "...No."

"Then why do you keep your distance from me?"

"Because this is wrong. Fake or not, I'm not going to do this to you Joey."

"Do what?"

"You know what I mean."

"I do because I am a figment of your imagination, and as your figment, I know well that speaking has always been the outlet of confusion, anger and pain. Talk to me Grant. Just like the old days when you would come home."

"All that coming home did was bring the worst out of me. You were fifteen and I was nineteen, and that night we kissed should have never happened..." Grant stared at Joey who didn't speak to him like the old days. Instead the curly man sat down on the bed and gazed at Grant expectantly for him to sit down. To have the older man be more relaxed as he spoke. Grant knew that they were naked, but that wasn't the important part.

It was that there was Joey right there. The same Joey who was kind, warm and an amazing listener and comforter. Grant knew that he shouldn't fall into the act, but then he didn't see the harm of admittance to a figment that already knew all. It would be like speaking to himself in privacy until Camouflage could get him out.

He sat down next to Joey but kept a small distance from him to not have skin touching. Thinking logically, Grant got up again to look for clothes in the closet and threw boxers at Joey to wear before sitting down again. They stared at each other in silence. Joey looked at him meaningfully. Grant looked back at him in wonder of how to start and whether he should bother. Seeing that there was nothing else to do, he talked.

"Joe, that kiss should have never happened because you're my brother. It's incest and gay! It's gay incest! If I hadn't already doomed my ass in hell for trying to kill someone, I'd be damned to hell for this!" He started pathetically but he was getting there.

"But even then, you'd love me Grant."

"Yeah...Why the fuck do you think you're here for? Why the fuck do you think I left to New York the next day? That fucking kiss screwed me up! You know I actually met a decent girl, but I couldn't be committed to her because she couldn't do it! She couldn't make me forget about you."

The figment frowned at the accusation. "I'm sorry."

"Now why the fuck are you apologizing?"

"Because it would be something Joey would feel. Apologetic and guilty."

"Or fucking disgusted..." Grant sat up straight feeling remorse and disgust for himself. "...I've been a zombie for the last ten years, and he probably forgotten all about me."

"You never got to tell him goodbye."

Grant chuckled sadly, "I'm fucked up. I'm so fucked up. I'm in love with my own brother, and I can't stop." He stomped his foot hard twice and then leaned forward in complete distress of his wrongful feelings that he wanted to cry.

Joey placed a palm on his back to not give Grant anymore discomfort. "I love you Grant."

"No. Shut the fuck up. Don't say that."

"I love you."

Grant glared at him like a growling lion. "I said to shut the fuck up!"

"I don't lust for you Grant. But I definitely love you. I love you so much. I always looked forward to you coming home every summer. Those were the best days of my life, and I'm not making this up to you because I told you every summer that I had so much fun with you. I loved you every day and I bet that the Joey now still does and waiting for you to come back to him every summer."

"I liked you better when you were mute."

"Then silence me."

"..." Grant stared at the figment who looked back at him with half-lidded eyes. The soft green of those bedroom eyes hypnotizing him. And they worked. He kissed the fuck out of that motherfucker.

* * *

Slade found himself under the pouring rain in front of the grave sites of his family and friends. Each and every one of them including Grant, Xander and Camouflage were all buried beneath.

"Mr. Wilson." A female with a bedroom voice called after him. Slade turned away from the grave stones to find himself within a mansion made of gold, jewels, paintings of himself, animal heads nailed to the wall, statues of his greatness.

"What is this?" He inquired. He knew that this must be a trick of his mind to reveal his darkest desire. Looking around, none looked so desirable.

"Mr. Wilson." The voice said again. Slade turned to it to see a gorgeous woman holding a folder. "Your next mission is ready."

"...I see. A few questions first."

"Of course Mr. Wilson."

"What happened to my family and friends?"

"They all died sir. Each and every one of them couldn't handle your life; the mercenary life. They all died one by one by their own fault for not being better like you sir. You are the greatest mercenary and assassin in the whole world sir. No one dares to disrespect you, and the ones who do are immediately dealt with by you."

"So that's it huh. My darkest desire is to have no one in my way emotionally and to be praised by all. This isn't as crucial as I thought it would be. If I wasn't a sentimental old fool, then this would've been accomplished years ago. But even if they do have a habit of standing in my way..." He thought back to Camouflage. Her cheerful young attitude who had the tendency to doubt herself, but never doubt him or their teamwork when situations were dire. The one who keeps him human at the end of every mission by being who she was, and that was more self satisfying than just accomplishing a mission and achieving another star marking on his reputation. He also thought of Grant and Xander and wondered of how they would play into his life for the better or worse. "We'll eventually learn to stand side by side."

"Mr. Wilson?"

"This is the darkest desires level and supposedly if I imagine, I'll be able to find the others and escape. The problem is how will I figure out the maze of the mind to find them. I believe Camouflage had told me once. Her power is capable of making her travel and gain information but to manipulate dreams or thoughts should be anyone's game. She told me that to locate others, she finds their brain waves. Our brain waves are mixing with Xander's and each others. Being a novice myself, I have to take the long shot."

The man cleared his mind skillfully. Having what was around him disappear. He then focused on what he could feel out of this. What he could possibly do with his mind tricking him. He might just use his token to find a way out to the safe haven with the chance of his family being there, but then he had doubt that they escaped their darkest desires.

Grant and Xander were just freshly out of a horror place, and Camouflage lacked complete self-confidence in herself.

The man thought heavily on what he was to do in this sort of place. He was not Camouflage and he might just being using his imagination if he were to think of some way to fix this. He sat down on the dark plane in a crisscross. Back firmly upright as every possible formula popped in his mind.

Literally popping. It was like corn kernels were popping his head of thoughts around him. It gotten annoying that he wanted to wake up. Wake up...That was it!

Camouflage sent him here through calming his mind to sleep and then sending his brain waves here. He knew that he might damage himself doing this, but he had to try. He had to get out of the unconscious so used his token that turned into a grapple gun that he shot. He heard the hook hold onto something before pulling him at a fast pace that he was back in the safe haven in just a second. He knew it was the safe haven when he saw the light head sign of 'Welcome to my Safe Haven' in bold blue cursive. Slade tried to think of it away but it was still there which meant he succeeded.

He then proceeded as plan. He woke himself up by having his token shoot him in the head which jump start him awake.

He opened his eyes. His heart beating against his ribs since it was his body's natural reaction. The man controlled it with ease before checking if this was reality by trying to pull out the pistol with his quick reflexes but there was no gun put magically into his hand.

Understanding that he was awake. He used the next split second to talk to Camouflage. Hopefully reaching deep to where she was. "Camouflage. Camouflage can you hear me?"

The teenager did. She was in the middle of sitting down on top of her golden thrown that was placed on top of a hill of the people she hated and envied. The others that she hated became her servants whom treated her like a queen. She felt completely superior over them which left her in a place of satisfaction.

Yet, she was snapped out of it to hear the voice. She looked up at the sky. "What?" Outside she whispered it.

"Good. Camouflage, it's me. Slade."

"Slade?..." She looked in front of her to see the man before her. "Slade."

"Yes. Camouflage, what's happening to you?" The figment approached her having his head lean back to look at her with great confusion.

"I..."

"Did you forget our mission Camouflage?"

"Mission?" Months had passed for her since Slade used a split second. The memory came faint to her. "Yeah?"

How she whispered it questioningly in reality made the man nervous. "Camouflage, we were supposed to locate the missing memory of Xander with him and Grant."

"Yeah! I know." She sounded offended that the man thought she was stupid. She couldn't believe he dared remind her of something important in such an offensive tone. "What? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No-"

"Well, I'm not! You got your smartness from a steroid injection unlike me who got hers naturally like any other being! I'm better than you! I am!" She snared at such an inferior person in front of her who cheated his talents. "Always leading the way with your stupid plans. Thinking you're so great. Better than me most of all when I can get into your little head and tear you to pieces!"

Slade realized what was Camouflage's darkest desire: She wanted everyone who made her feel belittled, even in the slightest, to be killed off.

The man wasn't all that shock considering the circumstances that she grew up with. Anika Flores's mother was woman who got off of belittling everyone. Most of all her daughter. Her mother married a rich and workaholic man who became her stepfather. Anika was raised among riches, but also without parenting that she learned about the world in a grey matter. Her days would be dark, but could be overflowed with light when her stepfather did his best to be there for her. Especially for her birthdays to make her feel like she counted.

Slade took that light away. He was given the mission to take her stepfather out by enemies who paid highly to not be outbid by the man. Having been the Deathstroke who was facing a rough moment in his life that morals couldn't reach him, he took the job.

A part of him wished he hadn't because he came at quite a compromising situation. Her stepfather and mother were arguing about something that was irrelevant for the man to remember. Although, it must've been so important to the woman that she'd have a knife to her daughter's throat. Her own flesh and blood used as a hostage to manipulate the affections of the man.

Her stepfather, loving her so much, had settled a deal with the woman, but then it was a trick. He killed her with the knife. Straight to the heart. Anika was shocked and frightened by his actions, but then she saw that it was a justified move. They thought that they had finally removed the roadblock of their happiness until he entered the room.

Her stepfather was a smart man. Knew he couldn't avoid his wrath or pay for his life, so begged for a few minutes with his stepdaughter. He allowed it and watched a stepfather tell his non-blood daughter to be strong, not become reckless like her mother, and to remember everyday that she counted because she had potential.

The man then sent her to the room before making a deal with the mercenary, knowing the person as a man of his word, to steal all the money from his bank account before or even if its frozen to give it to his daughter and to make sure that she stays okay. That she wasn't alone. Slade promised.

And then a few years later, the child found him, knew of the promise and stayed with him. The young woman before him who he has come to care for.

"Then do it." he dared. His figment standing right before her. "But first ask yourself this Anika. Would this make your father proud?"

The teenager tightened her lips, scrunched her nose and furrowed her brows so tightly to the center of her face. "I don't have a father!" She roared.

"You know what man I'm talking about! The man I killed! The man who specifically told you to not become this. Become like your mother!"

"I am not my mother!"

"Yes you are! At this very moment you are!" He pointed a deft finger to her face. "She was willing to kill you that night to get what she wanted for her own self satisfaction! What are you doing now?"

"I..."

"I WHAT?!"

"I..." She choked on her words. She knew he was right. Stroke right into her heart and left to bleed.

"Get it together Anika. Release yourself from these desires and restart anew. Desire to finish what we started here."

She nodded earnestly. "I'm sorry." She whispered pathetically.

"I know."

Within the mind, Camouflage's thrown upon dead bodies disappeared to be back into the blackness having emptied her mind. She then realized Slade also disappeared. "Slade?!"

"It's alright Camouflage. I'm not there because I'm awake."

"Y-you're awake."

"I shot myself to wake up."

"Wow." She gave a short breathy chuckle. "Kill yourself to life didn't you huh." She smiled. A graceful curve on her face.

"Yes I did. Now help me in Camouflage."

"Right." She opened her eyes for a moment to look at Slade in reality who was extremely close to her face. The odd nerve hairs on her cheek tingling from having been breathed on. There was a small piercing feeling to her ear. She quickly touched Slade's forehead and entered them in the safe haven. "We're here. Now that we overcame our darkest desires which I am very ashamed for, let's go get Xander. It felt like months passed but now I slowed time in here when you reached me, but now speeding up again. Let's go!"

She had an elevator similar to what had came out of the ground from the Italian pizza shop. She knew where Xander was, and knew that this wouldn't be pretty. "Get ready for bloodshed." She told the man.

"I have a feeling that it's Xander I should be ready for."

"Well, yeah, him too. But you'll slap self in your psychotic clone in no time." Camouflage told him optimistically. She had herself wear rain gear before the elevator opened to display a horror house of blood, guts, organs, skins and shredded clothing all around from the floors to the walls and ceilings. "I get the feeling we'll need backup for this. We should get Grant first."

"That may be too late." Deathstroke stepped out and heard the sound of steel cutting through flat metal. Footsteps coming there way. They turned and there he was. Xander was a blood covered child in thorn clothes. His eyes were wild, and bared his teeth as a sign of a threat. A single used up sword was covered in blood and someone's skin when the steel chipped and grabbed on. "Can you do anything Camouflage?"

"Y'mean snap him out of his animalistic state? Easy. Just gotta-" She stopped when Xander got too close towards her. Slade grabbed him and threw him back. The child rolled and then stopped on his feet. He leaped towards them. Deathstroke had his sword in hand and met the child in a powerful clang of steel. Xander's sword broke having been used up.

The child immediately thought of another one in his hand but bigger.

"Slade! I can do it if you keep him still! But don't rough him up too much that he wakes up! Right now his brain patterns are too erratic the more that he moves!" The girl cried to him seeking shelter at a corner. She didn't want to get in between some serious blood splattering battles.

"I'll do that!" He responded as he tried to avoid the huge and sharp blade coming his way. "Go get Grant!"

"Right!" She ran off to the elevator and went to get the older brother who could possibly help. But then she had to deal with getting him out of his darkest desire. She pondered on what that could. Knew it wouldn't be pretty. Probably killing Slade...This was really not going to be pretty.

* * *

Grant was at the beach lying down on a lounge chair getting an imaginary tan. He was wearing nothing but a speedo and sunglasses since he preferred it. It felt like months had passed. He wasn't going to stay in the bedroom with his half naked figment of a little brother, but they spent time together.

Those had been an awkward couple of months since they were in a world where it was just them. Moreover, he was happy. The two shared memories, and Joey would surprisingly correct him when he got a fact wrong. The two did activities, and the figment would play the piano. Always play the song that the real Joey made especially for him, and Grant never got tired of it.

Right now, the blond figment was in a pair of tight green and purple swim shorts. The blond must've really worked out by how manly he grew up. All the baby fat was gone, and muscles were made. Despite being more masculine, it didn't turn Grant off. It did the opposite when he felt like dominating over him. Of course, he resisted and insisted that the figment didn't try anything even if he did feel even remotely turned on by him. Having Joey's personality, the figment did as promised.

"Are you just going to lie there all day?" He asked blocking the sun out of vision.

"Yup." Grant responded plainly. In all honesty, he wondered where the fuck Camouflage was. He was beginning to not care anymore and that agitated him.

Joey dropped a volleyball on his stomach. "Come on, Grant. After this long, you should be relaxed."

"Around you?" He snorted. "No thanks."

"Afraid that I'll pull anything on you? That wouldn't fit my character would it?"

"I've been dead for ten fucking years. You could be a freaking psycho killer right now for all I know."

"Then why not savor the Joey I am now."

"Fuck no." Grant did not expect a second hard bounce from a volleyball to the stomach which had sitting upright. "What the fuck?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Oh sorry. Did that hurt?" Joey gave him a smug smirk that pissed Grant all the more.

"No, but you're fucking needy attitude does!"

"Then consider this as my apology." Joey threw a punch which Grant dodged.

"What the hell?!" He got off the lounge chair and dodged the next barrage of attacks before punching Joey straight on the face.

"Ow." The blond commented.

"You fucking asked for it retard!"

"Then I ask for this." Joey slyly tried to land a hit on him again only to surprise him when he jumps giving him a leg grapple and turned that had him turned over on his back. Grant forced his legs apart from his neck and pounced on his little brother who gave him bedroom eyes.

Grant was too angry to notice. He held the fucker's wrist down on the sand. "You little fuck!" He was set to punch him in the face, but then didn't do it. He was pissed off by being pulled down like that, but admitted to himself that he was impressed, too.

"What's wrong Grant? Why won't you punch me?" He said this as he rubbed his crotch against the other man's own. "Are you not going to punch me because you don't want to mess my pretty face?" He chuckled and then grunted when he got punched in the face.

"If I had started punching you before that," he lowered his voice to have him listen carefully, "I wouldn't have stopped. But I'm not that guy anymore who'll beat someone up for pissing me off a little bit. Besides, you cheated since you're a figment who knows what I'll do next."

"I do and you're at your limit Grant. Months had passed and as each day passed in this mind of yours, you're falling all the more in love with me. You know that it's just the two of us. It's about time you learn to indulge yourself. There's no harm. Once Camouflage is here, you'll be free and never think of this again."

Grant was silently contemplating his suggestion. It had been a while, and the figment wasn't lying about how he felt. At the end of his conclusion: Fuck this.

He kissed the figment of his little brother softly on the lips. They felt soft as expected. He didn't know whether his mind was capable of giving him the exact real experience. Though he didn't let it bother him. He was to indulge himself. He started with more soft short kisses before making them longer and deeper.

It was awkward but it wasn't disgusting. When the uncomfortable feeling ceased, he got more intimate with the body. He had his hands caress the skin below him that was covered in sand and water. Grant imagined them away to feel closer.

The figment accept all his touches. He sounded very acceptable when Grant moved down to kiss and nip at his neck. Joey moved one of his hands to his crotch and farther slid down in between his thighs. Grant felt the semi-hard on. He slid his hand in the tight shorts and grabbed the penis. Stroked it nonchalantly as a form of teasing to the wanton male who had his hands feeling his body and soon reaching for his own penis.

Grant thrust into his little brother's hand to feel the great sensation. He hadn't had sex in the last ten years either so he wasn't holding back.

"...GRaant..." Camouflage awkwardly called out to him.

Grant stopped his hips and turned his head to her. He saw the teenager that he's been wanting to see for a long time now. And of all the moments she could appear, she chooses now. The universe hated him. He quickly got off of his little brother and stuffed his junk in his speedo.

The teenager was glad that that came to her as a blur. It was enough that she witnessed her boss's son jacking off with his little brother who she knew by pictures she saw.

"Camouflage, this isn't-"

"Stop." She cut him off with an awkward hand raise. "Whatever this is, you'll figure out how to handle it yourself. It's none of my business to know. But right now, we have to leave here. Xander's darkest desire is to kill everyone in that lab. He's become a complete animal and Slade might not be able to hold him down without waking him up. We need your help...Coming?"

Grant stared at her and then down at Joey who was sitting up having fixed himself appropriately. The figment gave him an encouraging smile. "Go Grant. This will all be just a bad dream afterwards."

The older man didn't say anything to that. He just walked towards the female to follow her out.

* * *

Slade did have complications. Xander was reckless but also clever in his attacks. When the man tries to grab him, he was too quick, and thought of so many different weapons at him. Having the mission to not wake him up, he couldn't do the same.

"Slade!" Good. Reinforcements. "I got Grant." Camouflage stared at her surroundings. There were broken buildings, cracked streets and a grey cloudy sky above them. "Why are we in the middle of what looks like Godzilla went rampage in New York City."

"Xander." The male told her tiredly.

"Wow, he must've been real troublesome for you to sound that tired mentally."

"You think?" At the right moment for a point to be proven, a gigantic robotic form of a transformer rose from the ground. The child was at the top of it with wires connected to his body and spine. "He found this at the basement."

"Are you serious?" Camouflage knew this wasn't real but she didn't want to stepped on or crushed in any other way from that.

Grant responded, "Yup. The lab also had other plans."

"Why didn't it have better security?" Slade questioned. "Getting you and Xander out of there was one of the easiest jobs that I've ever taken."

"Good question, but first, it looks like he's ready for a fight." They stared at Xander who ran towards them. The earth quaked by each step. Camouflage quickly teleported them out of his way to safety at a cliff and had themselves not be able to track down.

"So wait, the lab we destroyed actually housed those big robots?" She questioned for clarity.

"Yes. I only saw them once during one of my training sessions but the scientists were careful to not say anything important with me around."

"What about the security?" Slade inquired.

"The security consisted of one of the fiercest assassins who've kept their identity unknown unlike you and the other assassins. There were also advanced weaponry from human and alien technology. I did find it unbelievable that you got me out of there without any problems, but I figured that I wasn't a good enough cargo to protect."

"They were relocating?"

"I don't know. I never knew what day it was, but if you didn't meet any of these people on the way of rescuing me, then it means that they did. Something big is coming up, and they must have a pretty good reason of why they would create a cure for the meta-gene through you."

"...I have a theory. But first, we have to bring sense back to Xander."

"Leave it to me." Grant said. "You may be his gene donor dad, but I know who he is now. I raised him in that perfect life. I know what he wants." The male jumped off the cliff and remembered in a flash of the clues in that perfect life.

_It was going to be Xandria's eighth birthday, and Grant wanted to know what presents she wanted. Being direct, he asked her over the phone, "So what do you want for your birthday my baby?"_

_"I'm not a baby daddy!"  
_

_"You'll always be daddy's baby girl. Now tell daddy want you want for your birthday."  
_

_"I wanna see the different colors in the sky."_

_"Different colors? Y'mean the northern lights?"_

_"Yeah! I heard that they were beautiful, daddy! I wanna see the pretty lights! I also wanna go camping. I'm tired of being cramped in one place."_

_"Isn't your mama taking you places?"_

_"She does. But it's not the same without you daddy. Come home."  
_

_The father sighed when his child asked for the impossible. "I'll try sweetheart. Kiss daddy goodbye."_

_"Muwah!"_

_He chuckled by the exaggeration. "Muwah to you, too."_

Grant formed a staff in his hand, and then pierced it into the ground. He had to use his imagination to work the mind from what he learned through those months. The staff split apart and then became roots in the broken road ground. Through those roots, different plants sprouted from the ground: Trees, shrubs, grass, bushes and flowers. Within each vegetation, an animal was released when a flower bloomed, a tree's roots had a opening beneath or when water began falling from the cliff that Camouflage and Slade stood upon.

The two amazed people had to apart from each other from the rushing water coming down from the steep mountain side behind them. They saw fishes and other marine wildlife swim through it. The grey sky above them began to break for light to pour in. The rest of the sky turned blue. The broken buildings and grey streets transformed into either a plain dirt ground or a rock covered in moss.

Xander's own robotic transformer was also being overtaken by the green roots surrounding his legs. He tried to free himself by struggling from their grasp. "Stop Xander." The child looked to the voice to see Grant standing before him.

The blond snarled at the taller man like an animal. Grant reached a hand out to him which the child shrunk back continued to growl and snarl. The taller man continued to reach out only to pet him. The kid was confused by such a gentle action. He still went into the defensive, but then after a while of only petting, the boy relaxed. When Grant saw this, he got closer to him slowly until Xander accepted to be held in his arms. "It's okay Xander. Everything is okay. Relax."

Camouflage got behind Xander and did her work of repairing his mind to remember who he was and stop his animalistic nature. Slade stood behind Grant to see his clone's features soften to misery. "Grant." He sobbed. "Dad." Slade stepped closer and petted his head. "It's alright Xander. We're all okay. We're real, and we've overcome our desires."

"You don't want to kill anymore right Xander?" Camouflage questioned gently.

"No." He weeped. "I don't want to be there anymore. I don't want to be in the lab anymore."

"Shhh." Grant told him and caressed his head. "We're not there anymore. Never will be. I promise."

After a few minutes of all feeling emotionally stable, Camouflage asked, "So are we still going on?"

"Yes." Xander responded wiping his face clean of his tears. "We're already one step closer. Just one more and we're there. I know deep down that it's important to know this."

"Then let's go." Slade told them readily.

"Let's get this fuckin' over with already." Grant commented.

Camouflage took a deep breath and nodded. "So we're near the finale huh. To the repressed memories that can answer why you have phobias and why you like to do certain things. The way I see it, the only thing that can go wrong is if the same thing happens where we're separated but this time face our deepest fears."

"I have a feeling that we already went through or deepest fears." Grant commented. "The way I see it, the only thing we fear was having our darkest desires control us thinking that it would make everything better for ourselves when its the opposite. Our fear is that we no longer become human anymore."

"Well said Grant." Slade complimented him.

"I was afraid to becoming what I just did." Xander pointed out. "But knowing that you guys are here, I'm not afraid anymore. I know that you'll come for me if I were ever alone in that situation and find a way to help me again."

"We will." Grant reassured him which made the child smile gratefully.

"That's great." said Camouflage. "But I still have a great fear of heights. Your dad literally has to either grab me or push me to get off a building which I will be greatly mad for later but not now."

Slade chuckled. "Don't worry Camouflage. I'll catch you."

"Not that comforting but okay. Let's go to level three! The final boss!" She created a door on one of the tree's trunks. She knocked on the wooden door to open. When it did, it gave this eery whoosh sound of air. They all grabbed hands again before heading down.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The trip was shorter than the last and they stayed together. They found themselves entering a cavern lit by torches where skulls were stuck to the wall to be its handle. They were in front of a ferry boat as if they had just entered Hades' territory of the dead.

"Is anyone thinking about death here?" Camouflage questioned.

"Sorry." Xander spoke up guiltily."I can't help being nervous."

"But it is interesting." The girl said. "We are in the unconscious of repressed memories. This must mean that you were here on the trips to your death."

"Yes he was." Another teenage girl told them. This time, the girl was an albino with long black hair, eye of horus tattoo at the upper corner of her left cheek, black upturned eyes and lips, and had on a stylish wear. "You and Slade were interested in the Greek culture after all." She told them cheerfully.

"And you are?" Slade inquired.

"I'm death." She responded frankly with her upbeat personality. "We've met many times Slade during your deaths, but you would obviously not remember since it doesn't work that way with me."

"But you're buried into not only Xander's and Slade's but also Grant's own unconscious memories, too." Camouflage observed. "But is that even possible. The brain doesn't function once their dead. How can meeting you become a memory?"

"Does it matter?" Grant questioned impatiently. "We're supposed to look for the important memory."

"It's nice to meet you, too Grant." Death gave him a familiar smile. "When you were dead for a period of time, you told me all about your problems before I left you to watch over your family while you stayed in a mansion of your own in pure solitude."

The place changed into the mansion that Grant must've stayed in. "This look like our old home." Slade commented except for the modern changes of technology such as the flat screen TV on the wall.

"Because it is." Death assured them. "Grant may have acted like he hated everything but deep down, he only wanted to be have his old life back to what he found to be his pure perfect bliss. He found that pure bliss again with Joseph, and it made everything feel perfect again, but then they never last."

"That's enough!" Grant snapped. "We're wasting time by listening to my crappy life. Let's find this important memory right now."

Camouflage frowned knowing why the man was upset but didn't say a word of that. "Grant's right. It was nice meeting you Death, but we gotta go."

"Okay. But I gotta tell you guys something first. For Xander's sake to know."

"Me?" The child didn't know what she was talking about.

"Yup. I told you before that you are living being Xander. You may be a clone, but you are you're own person and this is coming from an abstract personification who does her job of life and death, and your own life is your own even beyond the time we will meet again."

"But what about the other clones? Did they have lives?"

"Not exactly. They never had a life or their own identity Xander, so I rebirth them into someone else in the world around us to gain one before their permanent or brief time with me. When you gave yourself purpose through Grant, you became your own person. This life is yours, and the outcome of it all depends on you. And that lesson goes out to the rest of you guys. Just saying." She told him wisely with a cup of cheerfulness.

"That's...That's good to know." Xander had tears in his eyes again, and held onto Grant. He couldn't help crying by knowing that he had been told from what was beyond a god that he was his own self and he counted among the living as not some machine but as a person. He was Xander Wilson.

"I'm glad to tell you in this way. I should leave you to your mission. See you later." The teenager walked out the door.

Camouflage felt glad that Xander felt all the more real by those words. "Was that the important memory?" She questioned.

"No." Xander responded. "It was important, but it isn't the memory. But Death had reminded me of an important clue to it. The person speaking in my memory was a woman with long black hair. It was definitely at the time after I turned human." The place began to shift.

They were within square room with a table before them. A figment of Xander was on his stomach strapped to the table. His face protruding from a hole like a massage table. A machine injected a blue serum within him through his back. Right on his spine. The figment of Xander didn't scream since he was used to it. However he screamed when the serum was taken an affect on his body.

His body trembled erratically that it looked like he was having a stroke. After a few minutes, he stopped. The figment of Xander breathed again calmly. A scientist came in to observe his back to see that the needle injection remained unhealed.

"Fast forward." Xander said to no one, and had everything fast forward around them. The scientist moved, and then several others came in observing him before a woman entered the premises.

Xander stopped to look at the woman. The woman was tall with long black hair, brown eyes, medium tan skin, and a lovely hourglass figure fitting a green Chinese dress with a keyhole.

"Oh my god." Slade said breathlessly. "Sweet Lily."

Camouflage swore that if she had something delicate, she would drop it and break it on the floor because this was a huge surprise.

Xander wasn't happy to know the man was familiar with her. "You know her?" He questioned in a hurt manner.

"Yes." Slade said shortly. "She is Rose's mother. My daughter that I've told you about. Rose was right all this time. Her mother is alive."

"And is responsible for all of this!" Xander reminded him indignantly. "So this is why we were chosen. It is because of you. You hurt Rose, so she hurt and used us!"

"Xander." Grant placed his hands on his shoulders. "That's all in the past. Dad didn't know."

"I know. I just hate it that you once loved her." Xander admitted as he stared hatefully at the woman. He had the scene play.

The woman spoke, "Has it finally been done?"

"Yes Mistress Lily. He is human." The scientist who first walked in replied in an old raspy voice.

"Good. Throw him in the room and then sell him off to whatever child camp wants him."

"Right away Mistress Lily. And about Grant Wilson. He has been showing improvements in his recovery over the years. We have finally found the antidote to keep him alive before he is back to his dead period next year."

"Show me." The man took out a small closed tube that held green liquid within it. The woman took it in her hands to inspect its luminosity. "Are you sure that this will work?"

"Yes Mistress Lily. It has worked on the others."

"Good. Our army will be finished within the next two years. Soon we will have an army of stabled meta-humans, and have the cure if they rebel against us. It was a setback when unknowingly, Slade was hired to destroy my lab in Bludhaven. The only lab that was harvesting the poison that would be worse than Superman's kryptonite. Smart man, a genius to have fooled everyone to not know of his true objective. The worse man to have used my own daughter to do it." She grabbed the tube hard that it broke.

"Mistress Lily!" The scientist quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the liquid off her hand. More careful when there was glass shards in her palm. Yet they were pushed out and her hand healed instantly. The clang of the glass was loud than it should've been only to realize that the conversation was from Xander's ears. The appearance must've come from having seen them on previous days.

"I'm fine!" The woman slapped the scientist on the face with the back of her hand. "Focus on making more of everything! I will destroy everything that Slade holds dear after what he made my daughter and me go through. I will destroy the country he so dearly loves. I will have his enemies kill his family and make sure that the whole world will see it. I will make sure that at the very end, it will be the one most precious person to Slade who will kill him at the end. NNGNGH!" The woman held her head. A pain flowing through her that had her on her knees. "No...No..."

"Mistress Lily. You are having one of your headaches again." The scientist told her calmly. "You need to rest."

"Don't-! Nngh...!" She took a gulp of air. "Fine." she got up on her her wobbly legs and walked towards the exit where two men came in to take the figment of Xander away. When the boy was free from his straps, he launched an immediate kill attack to the two men before pulling off the needle from the machine. He charged towards the woman and successfully stabs her in the arm. Lilly screamed. Her scream rang through the room that had Grant, Camouflage and Slade cover their ears.

Lily kicked him off her. The child immediately knocked out. "I THOUGHT YOU SAID THAT HE WAS HUMAN!"

"He is! That must've been an adrenaline rush!" The man quickly defended himself. Then everything went black. Xander must've blacked out.

"So the important memory, it was that Grant is actually dying at a faster rate now. Considering the information's time," Camouflage had a screen appear, "Grant has approximately a full year's worth of life before degrading."

"Yes." Xander responded darkly. "And who's responsible for this."

"...Xander." The teenager knelled down to be at eye level with him. "I know you're mad that she was the reason behind the fact that you suffered those two years, but do you truly regret being alive?"

"...No. Not since I met Grant."

"Then you can't be that bloodthirsty. From everything that has happened at this point that felt like years when its actually a few minutes, I learned that you always think exaggerated ways to make people happy like Slade which is one of his worse traits. I also learn that you also have this excessive bloodthirstiness which only brings you back to the pain. You want to kill Sweet Lily don't you?"

"Yes." He grounded out.

"But here's the thing, and Slade can back me up on this, killing her won't make you feel better. Right Slade?"

"Absolutely. I killed many of my enemies for vengeance. I killed my half-brother, and a former enemy who were the ones truly responsible for ruining everything, but all of that would've not happened if only I haven't acted out selfishly for my own pleasures." Slade reasoned.

"But they're gone! They're no longer trying to ruin your lives any more!"

"But those were worthless guys." Camouflage pointed out. "Sweet Lily is the mother of your half-sister. Do you want to inflict pain on others. Take away what's theirs. Just like what that woman is trying to do now."

Xander wanted to stubbornly deny this common sense, but then he didn't want to disappoint them. He looked at Grant and knew that he shouldn't pursue wrath and uphold a senseless pride. He suffered and was so angry about it, but then it was over. And could remain over if he was to let go. No longer have his mind there. "Camouflage...Can you please erase these memories from my mind. I don't want to be mad anymore."

"I can't really do that Xander but I can fog these images and the voices you heard, but the facts that remains in there will remain with you. So when you do remember the lab, only popped facts like numbers for a math test will come to you. However the best thing is that you will no longer have those nightmares anymore. Does that sound good Xander?"

"Yeah. It does. Thank you so much. For everything." He hugged her. Camouflage happily accepted it. Her heart rushing for being able to do the right thing, and with confidence in herself, she does it.

She makes sure that Xander will no longer remember those days vividly by returning to his memory chamber and clearing the pictures of the pages. Xander, Grant and Slade watch her.

"Grant," Xander spoke.

"Hm?"

"How did you know what to do to bring me back?"

"Xandria told me. It wasn't hard to tell that the little girl I was raising was actually you Xander. Xandria always talked about going camping. About the pretty butterflies and stuff. The same way you'd talk about them when we'd walked together outside of the hospital."

"You were actually listening?"

"Yup." Grant pets his head. "Once all of this is done, the first thing we're doing in Kenya is camping out and seeing the animals."

The child's eyes lit up. "You promise?"

"Yes."

"I love you!" Xander hugged his waist tightly as he was filled with excitement.

Slade then said, "And Camouflage and I will go find the permanent cure for Grant to continue having the opportunities to do so. If that fits with you Grant."

"Yeah. I still have a lot to learn about being a mercenary, but listen to this old man. I'm going to be better than you."

Slade gave a smile of inner hidden mirth. "I look forward to it, and I don't doubt that you won't seeing that you have the right set of company."

"Me!" Xander gave his biggest proud smile.

The three spent the rest of the time that they had in the mind to learn from each other. Slade trained his two sons in different scenarios and to expect what their new teachers were going to throw at them.

There were three types of modes that each warrior were to display: The aggressive, the passive and the unorthodox. Grant was aggressive with his hot temper, Slade was passive as he was very well skilled, and Xander was rather unorthodox for his child-like creativity.

When Camouflage was finish, and they were out of the dream, they saw that only about a minute and a half had passed which meant that about ninety years had passed. Considering that approximately sixty years had passed during the perfect life phase, a half a year had passed at the second level of the darkest desires and the fixing of the mind took a few more months.

The four members then left the hospital for the airport where they were to be split in half. Before doing so, Camouflage grabbed Grant away from hearing range from Slade. "Grant, I'm going to tell Slade about your darkest desire."

Grant was shocked and showed to want to lash out, but had been trained to control it. "Why?" inquired he.

"Because at some point someone is going to exploit that, and it won't be pretty. So let me tell him after you leave. You two won't see each other for months. Probably even the full year which will give you two enough space and for your dad to figure out how he feels about this."

"And if he won't do the mission once he realizes his son is not only a fag but also into his brother who is his other son who he obviously loves more."

"You know that Slade loves you the most Grant. It's just that Joey needed the most protection unlike you who is so strong and filled with more potential than he does. He's proud of you, and that's the highest pedestal in his heart. I know for a fact."

"But-"

"And even if he knows," She cut him off forwardly. "He'll know that you're intentions were pure, and that it must be hurting you to feel the way you do. And maybe you might actually get together with Joey, and even though that happens, he'll support you because you're a good man Grant. And boy that came with a lot of ands, but you know what I'm saying right. Do you trust me?"

Grant sighed. "...I'm leaving anyway, so go ahead."

The two returned to their seats, and the plane was ready to board passengers. Slade gave both his sons a hug. Grant returned his hug while looking over at Camouflage who gave him a lopsided smile before being surprised by a sudden hug from Xander.

The two boys left. Camouflage and Slade watched the plane go. "Slade...I have something to tell you."

"I know." The man told her.

"Know? Know what?"

"That Grant is in love with Joe." Camouflage was stunned silent. Slade laughed softly. "How? Because during the perfect life that Xander tried to make for us, I can't help noticing how Grant looked at him when we were having family dinners or such. They were very close compared to how life was here. It's...completely strange and I...don't know how I will feel if Grant and Joey were to be in that kind of relationship. I don't know how to feel about it."

"How did you feel in that perfect life?"

"The same. It's not a common thing that fathers have to face. I want to ignore it."

"Don't do that Slade. It's either you reject it or embrace it because ignoring it won't make it go away."

"I know. But I need time."

"And we do. A year that is because right now we should be going to find that cure from another of your crazy exes. A source of yours has given us a lead, and I just booked us airplane tickets. Ready?"

"Always."


End file.
